Sex victims’ publication views set aside
A judge has ruled he must set aside the views of young sexual abuse victims and their families who wanted the teenage abuser’s name published.
The parents of the two girls and a boy, now aged 14, 13, and 11, had discussed the question of name suppression with their children ahead of the 18-year-old boy’s Christchurch District Court sentencing today.
The views of the children and their families were relayed to Judge Brian Callaghan by Crown prosecutor Deirdre Elsmore.
But Judge Callaghan ruled that in cases where there was a risk of identification of victims, Parliament had indicated with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 that name suppression could only be removed by a complainant who was 18 or over making application to the court.
He was concerned that in the case of one of the two girls involved there was a risk of identification. She had already changed schools because that issue had arisen.
Judge Callaghan said: “I can understand the view of the victims’ families that name publication should be part and parcel of the overall punishment, not only to punish, but to protect others – possible victims.”
He ordered the youth to undergo 18 months of intensive supervision, with judicial monitoring. The judge will get reports on his progress every three months. He must complete the Stop programme for sex offenders, undertake counselling or treatment as required, and he is not allowed any contact with any children under 16 years of age without the prior written consent of his probation officer.
He also imposed four months of community detention.
The youth lives with his grandparents. He had admitted representative charges of indecents assaults on girls and a boy aged under 12, and unlawful sexual connection with a girl and boy aged under 12. The children were aged from about 9 to 11 at the time of the offending, and the offender was aged 15 and 16 at the time.
The youth was originally charged in the Youth Court where a rehabilitative approach was taken to his sentencing. He has been attending the Stop programme without any difficulties, but it was decided by Judge Callaghan in August that the case should be sent to the adult court because it was too serious to remain in the Youth Court. The youth is now a trade trainee in Christchurch.
Mrs Elsmore said it was accepted that it was now too late to change the rehabilitative approach but there should be some punitive element to the sentencing, to mark the harm that the teenager had caused.
Defence counsel Colin Eason said the youth had accepted his treatment, and had lived in a “regulated environment” for a year, without his family. “He does not complain about that. He recognises that he has got himself into this position and the offending had to be taken seriously, and it was.”
He urged that name suppression be imposed, to ensure the protection of the victims’ names.
Category: News
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