A grandfather who sexually abused two generations of his family over the course of 30 years has been given a short jail sentence due to his poor health.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that he confessed in court that he had molested his daughter in the late 60s and two of his granddaughters in mid 1980s and in 2000. The abuse started when the girls were around five years old and continued over an extended period of time.
The crimes were taken to police in 2013 after the mother and her daughters had discussed the matter. The now 78-year-old man confessed to molesting all three women in the past in Wollongong District Court on Friday.
The judge, Andrew Haesler sentenced the man to three and a half years jail time, with a non-parole period of 12 months – he did not believe the man posed a threat to community safety. The man suffers from heart disease, hypertension, hyperthyroidism and osteoporosis.
“It’s not at all impossible that any term of imprisonment he would not survive,” Judge Haesler said.
“However, courts must harden their hearts at times.
“People who commit serious offences against their own children and grandchildren can’t expect to escape punishment because of their ill-health or age.
“However, his illness calls for a degree of leniency on humanitarian grounds … I will impose a significantly more lenient sentence than one that would ordinarily have been imposed.”
