JUSTICE SYSTEM UNBALANCED DISEMPOWERING AND OFFENDER FRIENDLY

9th July 2016

“This sentence reeks of recidivism, endangerment and total lack of respect for the victim and safety of the public” Guthrie.

Brendan Paul Henson, 46, the man who abducted and indecently assaulted a 5 year old girl in Palmerston North, was sentenced to eight years' in prison with a minimum non-parole period of five years in the High Court in Palmerston North by Justice David Collins.

“This abduction was highly pre-meditated and brazen. The victim was walking to school, as children should be entitled to do. She was vulnerable because of her age. The CCTV demonstrates the abduction was planned and targeted." Crown prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk.

Crown Prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk quite rightly said that if Henson was not sentenced to preventive detention, a starting point of 11 years in prison with a minimum term of up to two-thirds of the end sentence was appropriate.

“Here we have a repetitive offender who is simply getting away Scott free. Justice David Collins should be ashamed of himself for going against what the Crown Prosecutor suggested for a sentence and also for endangering the public by refusing preventative detention when it was available”. Guthrie.

Justice Collins discounted Henson's sentence due to his willingness to engage in treatment and went on to say he felt this was preferable to preventive detention.

Guthrie said, “Those comments make me furious, there is no evidence child sex offenders can be rehabilitated, but by his actions Justice Collins has clearly indicated he is prepared to put a vulnerable child at severe risk sometime in the future.”

“Justice Minister Amy Adams needs to ask the very real question as to why New Zealand Judges aren’t taking such horrendous offences seriously and why they keep treating our worst crimes as a joke because right now the justice system looks like a joke its self”

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/81888906/brazen-abductor-brendan-henson-sentenced

ENDS

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