THE MOTHER of a young girl abused by a teenage paedophile says justice has not been done after he was given a suspended sentence.
Peter John Michael Mills, 18, was given a 50-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, after admitting two charges of sexually assaulting a child under the age of 13.
The charges related to the sexual touching of the same female victim between August 23, 2006 and August 22, 2007 – when she was just six-years-old – and between August 23, 2009 and January 01, 2010 – when she was nine.
Prosecutor Heather Shimmen told the court that a pre-sentence report prepared on Mills had assessed the teenager as posing ‘a high risk to pre-pubescent girls’. After the hearing at Dorchester Crown Court the girl’s mother described the sentence as ‘outrageous’.
She said: “I just think it’s absolutely outrageous. The report said he was a high risk to pre-pubescent girls and we’re thinking: ‘How can he possibly be given a suspended sentence?’ “It’s worrying that they think he’s high risk and he’s out and about.
“Nobody knows what he’s up to and the next time anybody is going to know may be when he’s done something to somebody else.
“I just don’t think it’s proper justice for my daughter.”
Miss Shimmen told how the girl, now 11, finally confided in her mother around Christmas 2009 and was encouraged to go to the police.
Mills, who was aged between 13 and 14 at the time of the first offence and 16 at the time of the second, was arrested and interviewed by the police, during which he admitted the offences. Tim Shorter, mitigating, said Mills, of Wellington Court, Weymouth, suffers from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Asperger’s syndrome and said those conditions had to be taken into account when considering his client’s offending.
He added: “He did accept it was wrong but the degree of ‘wrongness’ was perhaps under-assessed by him.”
Judge Roger Jarvis imposed a 50-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and also made him subject to a 12-month supervision order. He also imposed a Sexual Offences Prevention Order banning Mills from having unsupervised contact with children and ordered that he be placed on the sexual offenders register for ten years.
The judge described Mills’ offending as ‘disgraceful behaviour’.
He added: “I hear what has been said about your personal medical conditions but you knew right from wrong.”
After the judge had passed sentence the victim’s mother said: “We knew he wasn’t going to get a long sentence but maybe some time in prison might have scared the hell out of him. He could have wrecked my daughter’s life.
“We’re sorting out counselling for her but she was so young when it started who knows how it’s going to affect her. Yet he’s just going to get on with life and it’s like he’s got away with it, it’s just a slap on the wrists.”
KIDSCAPE: ‘We have to ask if THIS reflects crime’
The head of a children’s charity has questioned whether Mills’ sentence is appropriate in light of his ‘despicable’ offending.
After learning of the sentence, Kidscape director Claude Knights said: “This is a very disturbing case, as it involves the repeated sexual assault of a girl when she was a very young child.
“We have to ask whether the suspended sentence of 50 weeks reflects the serious nature of this despicable crime.
“The effectiveness of the other sanctions imposed needs to be monitored very closely so as to ensure that the defendant does not continue to pose a danger to children.
“The families of the victims of such abhorrent sexual crimes will not obtain much comfort from this sentence.”
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