Indecent assault sentence trebled

Press, 20 May 1987, Page 6

Indecent assault sentence trebled

PA Wellington A man jailed for 12 months on charges of kidnapping and indecent assault, on a girl under 12 has had the sentence trebled by the Court of Appeal. The Solicitor-General appealed against the sentence imposed on Rollo Charles Phelps in the High Court at Napier. The Court allowed the appeal, quashed the sentence and substituted one of three years imprisonment. The Court comprised Mr Justice McMullin, Mr Justice Somers and Mr Justice Casey. Delivering the judgment, Mr Justice Casey said Phelps tricked a girl of eight into conversation, put her in his car and drove to a secluded area where he partly stripped her and committed the indecent asault. “As the trial judge

pointed out, he did not rape or brutalise the girl or cause her any physical harm,” he said. Mr Justice ' Casey said the Court had recently dealt with several appeals against sentences involving sexual offences against young children. The approach of the Court of Appeal was always that substantial prison sentences were called --for. “While we can respect the Judge’s concern with the possibility of rehabilitation, we are satisfied that it led him to overlook the fact that sentencing has a wider purpose,” he said. “For an offence of this gravity, a term of 12 months falls so far short of its achievement, and is so much out of line with comparable sentences, that it must be regarded as manifestly Inadequate.”