Woman saved from jail time

A FAR Northern woman has been given a second chance after a Cairns District Court judge placed her on probation rather than sending her to jail.

The 27-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to indecent treatment of a child under 12 in late 2015 in the Cairns region.

She and a co-accused, who was her former boyfriend, had looked after an 11-year-old child among others during the school holidays.

One night they took her to a lookout and while there the co-accused felt the girl’s genitalia outside her clothing and pinched her bottom.

The girl asked the woman to take her home, but Crown Prosecutor Nicole Friedewald said the defendant sat in the front seat and watched the man touch the victim.

“The complainant was crying at the time and asking for her mum and she was also asking for (the man) to stop touching her,” Ms Friedewald said.

Defence barrister Josh Trevino said there had been a significant power disparity between his client and her former partner, who has been jailed for five years for this and other child sex offending.

After moving to Australia from Papua New Guinea in her mid-teens, the woman became involved with the man soon after she was 17.

The court was told he was abusive and controlling.

Mr Trevino said his client accepted that she had aided in the sense that she was there and did nothing to stop the abuse of the child.

“I’ve no doubt you are remorseful for what you didn’t do,” Judge Dean Morzone said.

Judge Morzone said there were exceptional circumstances and the woman should not be jailed.

Instead he placed her on six months probation and a conviction was not recorded.