The ACT government will not toughen punishments for child sex offenders through the introduction mandatory minimum sentences.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The news comes as the ACT Court of Appeal prepares to hand down its judgment in the case of serial child molester Shane Williams.
Williams, 40, of Campbell, was in January jailed for 7½ years, with a non-parole period of 4½ years, for sexually assaulting a three-year-old girl in a public library while her mother was just metres away.
It was his sixth conviction for offences against children.
The sentence sparked a tide of anger from the Canberra public, with a mothers group staging a protest to pressure the ACT government to toughen sentencing for child sex offences.
An online community, the Canberra Mums, collected 13,000 signatures in an internet petition handed to Chief Minister Katy Gallagher calling for tougher laws to protect children.
Williams – who has a 20-history of crime against children – was drunk and high on cannabis when he entered the Belconnen Library to go to the toilet in September last year. He then molested the girl while her mother used a computer nearby.
The sentence also took into account a term of imprisonment for a racist bashing that occurred in 2012.
The office of ACT Director of Public Prosecutions lodged an appeal against the sentence length on the grounds that it had been manifestly inadequate.
DPP boss Jon White last week told the Court of Appeal that Williams’ criminal record meant he should have attracted a significantly higher penalty than a minimum 4½ years behind bars. Mr White noted the maximum penalty was 17 years and argued that protection of the community was the paramount concern for the court.
The court reserved its decision and is due to publish its judgment on Monday.
ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell said sexual violence was serious matter and the government was strongly committed to protecting children in the capital against that type of crime.
But he said the government opposed mandatory minimum sentencing and mandatory non-parole periods as it undermined judicial independence.
Mr Corbell said the ACT already had in place severe penalties for child sex offences and the government had last year increased the number of crimes that carry a 17-year maximum.
“However, the government is opposed to the introduction of mandatory minimum sentencing and mandatory non-parole periods in the ACT because they can interfere with the balance required in sentencing, contradict the importance of sentencing flexibility and prevent courts from dealing with the individual circumstances of each case,” Mr Corbell said.
“Mandatory minimum sentencing undermines judicial independence by removing from the judge or magistrate the capacity to properly impose a sentence that takes into account all of the relevant factors. It can lead to unjust, indiscriminate, and potentially arbitrary outcomes for individuals.
“I support the role of our courts to properly judge the individual circumstances that must be taken into account when an offender is sentenced.”
Mr Corbell said he supported the independence of our courts to review sentences if it believed that there has been error in a sentence.
