QLD:Pedophile attacked kids while dodging cops

AAP General News (Australia)
04-14-2011
QLD:Pedophile attacked kids while dodging cops

BRISBANE, April 14 AAP - Queensland's police minister has defended the state's sex
offender laws after a serial pedophile abused six girls while flouting orders to report
to police.

The case has outraged child protection advocates who say children are paying a shocking
price for systemic failures and a lack of will to keep the worst offenders behind bars.

The man, 33, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was listed on the state's child
sex offender register at the time of the sex attacks in 2009, The Cairns Post reports.

The man, whose sex offence history dates back to when he was 19, had been released
from jail in 2008 but he stopped reporting to police, as required.

Over a four-month period in 2009, when he was not reporting to police, he raped and
sexually assaulted his de facto partner's eight-year-old daughter and five of her friends,
the paper reported.

The man was sentenced to seven years' jail in Cairns District Court on Wednesday after
pleading guilty to 16 charges, including rape and indecent treatment of a child under
the age of 12.

He will be eligible for parole as early as August 2012 because of time already served.

Child protection campaigner Hetty Johnston, of Bravehearts, said the six girls had
paid the ultimate price for the decision to let the man out of jail.

"I'm speechless ... it's disgusting," she told AAP.

"This is exactly the type of offender who we say should never be released.

"His next victims are waiting, they may not even be born yet."

She said she hoped Attorney-General Paul Lucas would appeal the leniency of this week's
sentence and seek an indefinite jail term.

Ms Johnston said the case brought into question the effectiveness of the Child Protection
Offender Register, which requires offenders to report to police.

"It's not a case of if they are going to reoffend, but when, and if they are going
to get caught," she said.

"It's such an inhumane response from the legal system to inflict these people back
onto the community."

Police Minister Neil Roberts defended Queensland's sex offender laws as "among the
toughest in Australia" but acknowledged police had lost track of the man.

He said he'd received departmental advice the offender had reported as required to
Cairns police in April and made further contact in May 2009.

"In early October 2009, police conducted a proactive compliance check on the offender
and discovered he moved address without advising police," he said in a statement.

"As such, he breached his reporting requirements and police immediately undertook to
locate the offender.

"I am advised that the offender was located on October 29 and charged with breaching
the conditions of his order. He was brought before the court and was sentenced to six
months' imprisonment for that breach.

"At the same time the police became aware of and investigated other offences committed
by the offender for which he was also charged resulting in his sentencing yesterday."

Opposition Liberal National Party (LNP) legal affairs spokesman Jarrod Bleijie said
not enough was being done to keep track of such offenders.

"The LNP has been calling for tougher reporting requirements and more powers for police
to better protect the community from these vile offenders, but Labor refuses to act,"

he said.

Mr Bleijie said the government's own figures, from a question on notice last year,
revealed the number of child sex offenders breaching their reporting obligations had soared
from 18 in 2005 to 545 in 2009.

Mr Roberts noted parliament had last week passed new laws that imposed stricter reporting
requirements and tougher penalties for offenders who failed to comply with reporting obligations.

Breaches now attract a maximum penalty of five years' jail or a $30,000 fine, up from
two years or $15,000, Mr Roberts said.

Premier Anna Bligh also defended the state's "strong" laws and post-release monitoring program.

"Queensland is the only state who has successfully put in place supervisory arrangements
for people like this when they leave our prisons," she told reporters.

Ms Bligh declined to comment on whether police failed to do their job.

AAP lpm/tnf/dep/apm

KEYWORD: SERIAL WRAP

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