LOCK THESE GRUBS AWAY
CAMERON Alister Conrad is likely to be released from jail within a year despite admitting to indecent treatment and making child pornography relating to 37 children, aged five to 14. Thirty seven children.
The maximum penalty is 14 years.
In 2011, Conrad was sentenced to 12 months in prison, serving eight months, for assaults on minors in NSW.
Sadly, his case is not in isolation. A Gold Coast Bulletin investigation into the sentences handed to child predators in recent months is a sorry tale. Consider these:
● Last month, a 74-year old man who sexually assaulted an intellectually disabled woman was sentenced to three months in prison. Wayne Clifford Howlett lured the 24year-old woman into the bushes, undressed and touched her inappropriately. He will also have to serve two years on probation after release and complete a sexual offenders program.
● A man who asked his three-year-old granddaughter if she would like to touch his penis walked from court with a suspended sentence despite pleading guilty.
● Two days earlier a father who indecently touched his two stepdaughters for almost 10 years pleaded guilty to indecent treatment. He was sentenced to three years in prison to be suspended after he served 10 months. The prison term will be suspended for three years.
● In August, a man walked from court despite admitting to having sex with the family dog and possessing videos of children engaged in sex acts with animals. Christopher Edward Hunt, 31, was given 18 months in prison, suspended immediately with an operational period of three years.
● Two weeks earlier, a man accused of masturbating in front of a 13-year-old girl – and who told the child “I know you want this’’ – walked from court after being sentenced to 10 months in jail, wholly suspended for 18 months.
● A man who grabbed a 15-year-old’s crotch as she was swimming, tried to grope her breasts and attempted to kiss her walked from court in July. Daniel Christopher Evans, 28, was sentenced to 12 months in jail, immediately suspended.
● An 81-year-old man who pleaded guilty to having more than 8000 child-abuse images walked from court after being sentenced to two years in jail, immediately suspended for an operational period of five years.
● In May, Shaen Samani Alizadeh, 29, walked from court after pleading guilty to one count of using the internet to procure a child under 16 for a sexual act.
The Gold Coast Bulletin is prevented from naming a majority of these grubs.
Late last month this newspaper reported more than 200 registered child sex offenders on the Gold Coast. Legislation restrictions stop the community from knowing where these registered sex offenders are living.
The Bulletin and child safety advocates such as Bravehearts’ Hetty Johnston have campaigned hard for these grubs to face the justice their crimes deserve because, as the list above illustrates, the courts system is failing society.
Innocent lives are being ripped apart by deviants and the deterrents for those evil acts are not strong enough. Our courts need to meet the standards shared by the rest of the community and throw the book at them.