KEY POINTS:
A 15-year-old boy charged with sex offences against children - one as young as six - has been jailed despite defence counsel pleas for him to stay in the community to continue treatment.
In a protracted sentencing in Christchurch District Court that spanned the weekend, Judge Lindsay Moore said in his "almost 50 years" in the law profession he couldn't recall a more difficult sentencing.
A Youth Court judge had already decided the case was too difficult for sentencing in that court and Judge Moore adjourned the hearing on Friday to allow he and counsel to consider alternatives to imprisonment.
Judge Moore said on Friday he feared that if the boy was caught offending again with young children he could be killed on the spot, such were the community's emotions regarding sex offenders targeting children.
The boy, now aged 15-1/2, admitted charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, indecent assault, assault and attempted sexual connection - offences committed when he was just 14. All four victims were boys aged six to eight.
On Friday Judge Moore said he was struggling with how to get treatment for the boy while still protecting the community from his actions. If he jailed him, no suitable treatment programme would be available to him until next year.
Today the boy's lawyer, Liz Bulger, urged the judge to impose a jail sentence of just two years that would allow her to apply for home detention for the boy, which would enable him to complete the Stop programme for sex offenders that he was currently doing.
She said she accepted Sentencing Act provisions required accountability, denunciation and deterrence and agreed that one of the victims had been "particularly vulnerable" because of his age.
The boy was having some success on the Stop programme and prison would be a "crushing experience" for him.
"This young man enjoys a good deal of support from his family and extended family," Ms Bulger said.
Several members of the boy's family were in court for his sentencing today.
Ms Bulger said the boy had expressed "considerable remorse to a limited extent" at a family group conference and found the exercise an "overwhelming experience".
"It wouldn't have been easy for him 'fessing up to what he's been up to," she said.
Judge Moore said sexual offending was "probably the most problematic for the court" in balancing the needs of the offender with the effects on victims. On the lead offence of sexual violation, the boy faced a maximum sentence of five years' jail.
Outlining the offences, he said in June 2006 the boy had lured a six-year-old riding a bicycle in a playground into bushes on the pretext of showing him a hut. The boy then sat on top of the youngster put his hand over his mouth to stop him screaming, told him he was going to have oral sex with him and tried to remove the child's pants.
Only the six-year-old's sister arriving on the scene halted "anything worse" happening.
In November or December 2006, the judge said, the boy pushed another young boy into bushes and pulled his pants down. The offender held the boy down, but the boy managed to escape after calling out to a friend.
He said another similar incident resulted in "actual sexual violation".
In March this year, the offender sexually assaulted an eight-year-old boy in the toilets of a primary school during an interval.
"The complainant's shouts and the entry of another child into the toilets brought that episode to an end," the judge said.
The final complaint involved the offender being disturbed in a sex act with another child and assaulting the complainant "for his efforts".
Judge Moore said victim impact reports from the child complainants and the school made "deeply distressing and entirely predictable" reading.
Aggravating features of the boy's offending were the complainants' ages and his planning and premediation, multiple offending and the "second phase of offending" that happened after the boy had attended a family group conference relating to the first offence.
"This young man must be held accountable for his actions," the judge said.
The prison system made provision for youthful offenders "because there's no shortage of them," he said.
Other options for treatment would be available for the boy while he was serving a sentence of imprisonment.
Judge Moore sentenced the boy to 2-1/2 year's jail on the sexual violation charge, and directed him to come up for sentence if called upon within 12 months.
He said publishing the boy's name would expose him to risks of harm and he granted final suppression of his name.
- NZPA
