Sex offender 'shocked' he wasn't jailed

SYDNEY - Like most of the community, Ronald Dean King was "shocked and surprised" when he wasn't jailed for sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl during a home invasion.

He had already bought a rice cooker, jug and television to make his time in jail easier when a NSW District Court judge imposed a two-year suspended sentence in February.

But the sex offender and thief is now behind bars, after appeal judges on Thursday quashed his original term.

In upholding a crown challenge, the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal jailed King for a minimum of four years six months and a maximum of seven years.

The court concluded the judge should have jailed him for at least six years nine months, instead of imposing a two-year suspended sentence in February.

But Justices Peter McClellan, Michael Grove and Roderick Howie imposed a lesser term, for reasons including King being put in fear of vigilantes due to the "manifestly inadequate" original sentence.

At the appeal, King's barrister conceded the judge had been in error in suspending the sentence.

And according to his own affidavit, King himself had been "shocked and surprised", but happy, when he walked free, although "I was scared about public reaction".

King, who was 23 at the time of the offence, had pleaded guilty to having sexual intercourse with a child under 10, the offence involving digital penetration.

He also admitted to one act of indecency, stealing from a dwelling and attempting to take a motor vehicle.

One evening in November 2007, King had broken into the northern NSW home of a woman whose four-year-old granddaughter was staying overnight.

He removed some clothing from the sleeping girl, who awoke and told him to go away, but he digitally penetrated her before masturbating while leaning over her.

He left his underpants in the room, took a bottle of juice and a can of drink from the kitchen, and keys before unsuccessfully trying to get into a car outside.

The appeal judges concluded that the sentencing judge made a number of errors and had grossly underestimated the seriousness of the sexual intercourse charge when he deemed it to be at the "lower end of the scale".

"The sentence imposed upon (him) falls far short of appropriately denouncing his crime," they said, referring to the community's "legitimate sense of outrage" at the offence.

Before King was originally sentenced he spent 14 months in custody and then was virtually housebound after the public outcry over the leniency of his sentence.

After the appeal court decision, King was taken into custody by Corrective Services officers, having already been told to expect to be returned to jail.

He will be eligible for parole on May 27, 2012.

- AAP