By KATH GANNAWAY
A 72-YEAR-OLD Healesville man was jailed earlier this week for sexual offences going back more than 40 years.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared before Judge Richard Maidment in the County Court on Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 October.
He was appealing a 20-month sentence imposed in May this year in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in relation to five charges of indecent assault to which he had pleaded guilty, and one that he had pleaded not guilty to, but on which he was also convicted.
The court heard the maximum penalty available to the court was five-years imprisonment.
Defence lawyer Julie Condon had also argued strongly for a community corrections order, citing the age and ill-health of the offender, along with his remorse and prospects for rehabilitation, as relevant considerations.
“Prison is going to be more of a burden at his age,” she said.
Handing down his sentence, Judge Maidment said the court was duty bound to impose a custodial sentence and that nothing other than an immediate term of imprisonment was required for crimes of such a serious nature.
“These were a great breach of trust,” he said.
“The effect of such conduct on the victims in these circumstances is profound, as evidenced by the victim impact statements.
“These are offences which, although they took place a long time ago, continue to have an effect and almost certainly will continue to have an effect (on the victims) for the rest of their lives.”
Judge Maidment said the court was duty bound, even in cases of such vintage, to impose a sentence that not only denounced and punished the offender and the conduct, but that had a broader deterrent effect.
He said he regarded a Community Corrections Order as being inadequate to meet sentencing requirements in view of the serious nature of the offences.
He imposed a sentence of 17 months imprisonment with a non-parole period of 10 months and ordered that the offender be placed on the sex offenders register as a serious sex offender.
