AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph
LEMA SAMANDAR THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JUNE 11, 2014
A MAGISTRATE has been forced to allow a child molester to escape jail because of a dated law, despite what he described as the “catastrophic” impact on the victim.
Daniel Hayman, 50, a Jewish orthodox man who pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a child under his authority at a Yeshiva camp in 1987 or 1988, received a 19-month suspended sentence.
Then aged 24, the camp leader drove the 14-year-old boy from the Stanwell Tops camp to isolated bushland where he sexually assaulted the teen, Downing Centre Local Court heard yesterday.
Magistrate David Williams said he had to sentence Hayman under 1980s law, but if he was to punish him under today’s legislation he would “not hesitate in sending him to jail”. He described the assault’s impact as catastrophic after hearing a victim’s impact statement.
Hayman was last month acquitted of a similar offence against a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s due to a “legal oddity”. During sentencing, Hayman kept his head down and read a religious text.
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