Nemesis
05-03-2004, 11:33 PM
Sydney Morning Herald (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/03/1083436545327.html?from=top5#)
By Natasha Wallace
May 4, 2004
A teenage boy who sexually assaulted a nine-year-old girl will be freed early - and his mentor, actress Rachel Ward, says it's a good thing.
Ward was delighted by yesterday's unanimous decision by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal to release the boy who, aged 13, attacked the girl on the way home from school, pinning her to the ground and forcing himself upon her. The girl's mother, who had gone looking for her after she had not returned home by 3.30pm on March 4, 2002, discovered the boy on top of her daughter after she followed her screams to a nearby field.
It was an "extreme case", but the boy, who is now 16, would be better off out of the Reiby Juvenile Detention Centre, where his counselling was "minimal" and "inadequate", Ward said.
She had been visiting him, with her partner Bryan Brown, every fortnight through a mentoring program called Big hArt, which involves about 3000 disadvantaged children. "No one is suggesting what he did is right but there is a reason why a 13-year-old boy expresses himself in such a way," she said.
She said he desperately needed a positive male role model, and would benefit from mentoring programs.
She said his 22-year-old sister, who will now care for him alone, was a "very formidable and together girl" but would also need support.
He is not permitted to be in the company of children under 12 alone and is required to attend weekly counselling sessions until December 2006.
He was sentenced on December 5, 2003 to three years detention, with a non-parole period of one year, after he pleaded guilty to sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 10. The offence carries a maximum penalty of 25 years.
In his judgement handed down yesterday, Justice David Kirby said the boy had a deprived childhood. He had never met his Aboriginal father, and his mother, who suffered from depression, put him into the care of a 50-year-old family friend when he was 11. The family friend sexually abused him.
Seven months before he attacked the girl, he had tried to hang himself.
A juvenile justice counsellor, Jeannette Liva, said during his sentencing hearing last year that he should not be given a custodial sentence because he would get "very limited" therapy.
"The psychologists that work in the detention centre have an incredibly high workload, and they're usually . . . fire-fighting," Ms Liva said.
In 2002, 90 boys and one girl were convicted of sexual assault, according to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics.
Dale Tolliday, of the New Street Adolescent Service run by NSW Health, said that such offenders should never be detained because there is "no evidence to show that that's going to solve the problem".
Nigel Spence, chief executive officer of the Association of Children's Welfare Agencies, said that help for young sex offenders was in "short supply".
The NSW Department of Juvenile Justice would not comment on the issue.
By Natasha Wallace
May 4, 2004
A teenage boy who sexually assaulted a nine-year-old girl will be freed early - and his mentor, actress Rachel Ward, says it's a good thing.
Ward was delighted by yesterday's unanimous decision by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal to release the boy who, aged 13, attacked the girl on the way home from school, pinning her to the ground and forcing himself upon her. The girl's mother, who had gone looking for her after she had not returned home by 3.30pm on March 4, 2002, discovered the boy on top of her daughter after she followed her screams to a nearby field.
It was an "extreme case", but the boy, who is now 16, would be better off out of the Reiby Juvenile Detention Centre, where his counselling was "minimal" and "inadequate", Ward said.
She had been visiting him, with her partner Bryan Brown, every fortnight through a mentoring program called Big hArt, which involves about 3000 disadvantaged children. "No one is suggesting what he did is right but there is a reason why a 13-year-old boy expresses himself in such a way," she said.
She said he desperately needed a positive male role model, and would benefit from mentoring programs.
She said his 22-year-old sister, who will now care for him alone, was a "very formidable and together girl" but would also need support.
He is not permitted to be in the company of children under 12 alone and is required to attend weekly counselling sessions until December 2006.
He was sentenced on December 5, 2003 to three years detention, with a non-parole period of one year, after he pleaded guilty to sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 10. The offence carries a maximum penalty of 25 years.
In his judgement handed down yesterday, Justice David Kirby said the boy had a deprived childhood. He had never met his Aboriginal father, and his mother, who suffered from depression, put him into the care of a 50-year-old family friend when he was 11. The family friend sexually abused him.
Seven months before he attacked the girl, he had tried to hang himself.
A juvenile justice counsellor, Jeannette Liva, said during his sentencing hearing last year that he should not be given a custodial sentence because he would get "very limited" therapy.
"The psychologists that work in the detention centre have an incredibly high workload, and they're usually . . . fire-fighting," Ms Liva said.
In 2002, 90 boys and one girl were convicted of sexual assault, according to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics.
Dale Tolliday, of the New Street Adolescent Service run by NSW Health, said that such offenders should never be detained because there is "no evidence to show that that's going to solve the problem".
Nigel Spence, chief executive officer of the Association of Children's Welfare Agencies, said that help for young sex offenders was in "short supply".
The NSW Department of Juvenile Justice would not comment on the issue.