Child Sex Abuse Victim Calls for Mandatory Minimum Sentences

By Janet Fife-Yeomans
Herald Sun
June 17, 2013

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/child-sex-abuse-victim-calls-for-mandatory-minimum-sentences/story-fnii5s3y-1226664328943

IT was supposed to be a fun birthday surprise, a male stripper for Kimberly Harrington's 30th birthday.

But the risque yet innocent gesture organised by her friends brought all of Kimberly's childhood horror flooding back.

Memories of when she was a little girl playing with her toys in the back garden and the next door neighbour would lift her over the fence and take her into the garage for what he said was their "special game".

She was so young she can't remember when the sexual assaults began, but she can recall exactly when they stopped - the day her parents moved house when she was just six years old.

Now a mother herself, Kimberly, 30, wants to tell her story because she wants judges who sentence child sex offenders to realise that just because abuse occurred when the victim was still a child, it doesn't mean you ever forget.

In fact, the memories only get worse and the coping even tougher.

She is backing The Sunday Telegraph and The Daily Telegraph campaign for mandatory minimum sentences for child sex offences, to bring sentencing into line with what the public thinks is appropriate.

The campaign was sparked by community outrage after it was revealed judges are giving child sex offenders shorter sentences than financial criminals, some of them getting off with good behaviour bonds or even without having a conviction recorded against them.

Kimberly said that the shockingly low sentences put victims off going to the police and reporting sexual assaults.

"People just see that there is no point in putting themselves through going to court," she said.

"My friends and family have heard me rant against light sentencing for paedophiles for years and when I saw the newspaper, I was so happy that I wasn't alone," Kimberly said.

"I am so happy that I'm not the only one who sees how unjust it is.

"If there is more publicity, it will become something that politicians have to give a damn about. If people let them know that they care, something will be done.

"White collar criminals may cause harm but it is nothing compared to the life sentence of mental illness and even substance abuse that often follows a child abuse survivor."