An aboriginal sex offender who broke into a home and molested a 10-year-old girl in her bedroom while on probation for attempted rape has been set free and spared a conviction.
The “high risk” 18-year-old was spared jail in Mackay Children’s Court last month after pleading guilty to burglary, indecent treatment of a child and stealing, and Queensland Attorney-General Deb Frecklington said on Thursday she had lodged an appeal, saying the sentence did “not meet community expectations”.
The court heard in June that the teenager, who cannot be named as he was a minor at the time of the crimes, removed a security screen from the kitchen of a home in Mackay, went into a bedroom where the girl was sleeping, removed his shirt, grabbed her buttocks and pinned her to the bed, Daily Mercury reported.
When the girl screamed he fled the home with two mobile phones that police used to track him down. He was detained but released by police before returning to the house and threatening to kill the girl’s father. The girl is now traumatised and suffers nightmares, flashbacks and a fear of intruders in her home.
In 2023 he was given 18 months’ probation for attempting to rape a woman in the street in the indigenous crime-ravaged Far North Queensland city of Townsville, an order had been extended by six months due to non-compliance.
Crown prosecutor Monique Sheppard argued the offender, who spent 11 months on remand, should be given a further custodial sentence due to the seriousness of the crime, the “degree of premeditation”, the effects on the girl and her family, and worsening risk assessments during a two-year treatment program.
“He has increased his risk of sexual offence with recidivism,” Ms Sheppard told the court.
“[He] did not comply with the reasonable requirements of the program nor maintain a rate of progress that was satisfactory. With respect to further reoffending, his risk is high.”
A second psychological report from this year found that the teen’s actions were “consistent with an emerging paraphiliac disorder” and Ms Sheppard pushed for a conviction and a jail sentence in an adult prison, saying he had already been given a chance.
But the teenager’s lawyer Sean Franklin, instructed by Daniel Lane from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service Mackay, told the court the teenager had mental health issues including PTSD, had suffered “profound disadvantage”, and was the victim of domestic abuse.
He argued that sending his client to an adult jail would result in him being “exposed to adult offenders in circumstances when he’s already highly vulnerable”, and the court also heard the teenager may have been a victim of sexual abuse, and had been in child protection since 2022.
Judge John Allen KC acknowledged the “high risk of sexual offence recidivism” but did not record a conviction and gave the teenager two years’ youth detention with a six-month conditional release order in effect immediately, and two years of probation, citing his prospects of rehabilitation.
“You’re still a young man with the rest of your life ahead of you,” Judge Allen told the teen in sentencing.
In a victim impact statement the girl’s family said the crime had shattered their sense of safety, and that for six months she was too afraid to enter her own bedroom or go downstairs alone, and slept in her parents’ bed.
“This was a terrifying event, and I can only imagine the profound trauma the victim has faced,” Ms Frecklington said after confirming the appeal.
“My thoughts are with the young victim and her family.”
The offence occurred before the Queensland government introduced new “adult crime, adult time” laws, under which the teenager would have faced a maximum sentence of life in jail.
