Stop Demand Foundation, a registered charity (CC 30599) with the Charities Commission, has attacked a Court of Appeal decision granting name suppression to a 50-year old Manawatu man found guilty of possessing images of child rape. The charity’s founder, Denise Ritchie, who was interviewed on TV One’s Breakfast programme about the matter this morning, says the Court’s decision is a blow to child rape victims in New Zealand and to lobby groups like hers around the world fighting sexual violence against children.
The Manawatu man, who admitted 21 charges of possessing objectionable material, was sentenced to six months home detention and fined $5250 at the end of last year.
In a decision only made public yesterday, the Court of Appeal ruled that his name should be kept completely secret to protect his family members.
Ms Ritchie, who has read and studied the decision, pointed out on TV One’s Breakfast programme that the convicted man has not lived with or had close association with any of the “family members” whose reputations and privacy the Court of Appeal Judges have sought to protect. She argues that granting name suppression to the offender merely to protect the reputation of these people sets a dangerous precedent.
Ms Ritchie also argues that the punishment imposed by the Court of Appeal was not commensurate with the gravity of the crime committed – and failed to take full account the fact that (1) the offender has been assessed as still posing a “low to medium risk of reoffending” and (2) the anti-child porn law allows for a prison sentence of up to five years to be imposed at sentencing.
The 100 pictures, videos and text files on the offender’s computer showed children as young as 18 months involved in sexual acts, including rape.
The judgement stated that publishing the guilty man’s name would lead to “incalculable hurt” to his family.
Ms Ritchie implied when interviewed on TV One, that this was on account of the positions held in the community by the offender’s family members. She claimed that if the New Zealand public was informed who they were and the positions they held, then there would be a public outcry over the name suppression order.
Ms Richie says that the name suppression order and “paltry” sentence constituted a big blow for child rape victims and it went against international efforts to crack down harder on such offenders.
The Manawatu man was found with 900 pages of text describing bestiality, incest and other sexual violations on children. The images, which depicted violent sex acts including pack rape on children, some of whom were bound and gagged while being raped by men, were downloaded off the internet over two and a half years.
“It seems the Court of Appeal had more regard for this sex offender and his family than the countless numbers of child rape victims and theitr families.
“These victims will be identifiable. They will live the rest of their lives without anonymity…”
Naming offenders would increase their future accountability to others.
It would also allow parents to protect their child from this offender should he be in contact with their kids.
Sources:
The Dominion Post, Thursday July 21, 2011, p. A3 “Child porn ruling challenged”.
Good Morning Breakfast Show. Interview with Ms Denise Ritchie, TV One 22 July 2011.
Leave a Reply