AUSTRALIA
The Age
October 30, 2014
Tammy Mills
Crime reporter for The Age
A former Catholic school teacher in country Victoria avoided jail on Thursday for a historical sex assault on a student in 1970.
John Skehan, 75, was given an eight-month sentence suspended for two years and was placed on the sex offenders register after he pleaded guilty to the indecent assault of his 13-year-old student at a boys school in Shepparton.
That student was Greg Barclay, now aged 58 and a vice-president with the Australian Education Union.
In his decision not to send John Skehan, 75, to jail for an historic sex offence, Magistrate Ian Watkins took into account Skehan’s age, his ill health and that he was unlikely to reoffend. However,his victim, Greg Barclay, says he is ”gutted” by the sentence.
Mr Barclay said outside court on Thursday that he was “gutted” with the sentence. Skehan had already been convicted and placed on a suspended sentence in 2010 for the indecent assault of a young child in Broken Hill in the 1970s.
In his sentencing on Thursday, Magistrate Ian Watkins took into account Skehan’s age, his ill health and that he was unlikely to reoffend.
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