It looks like a convicted paedophile is having a hard time finding a new home following his release from prison. Robert John Fardon who had already breached his parole agreement by keeping company with another multiple sex offender was jailed again and has now been released for a second time. Apparently, the citizens of Ipswich were not throwing a welcome party for him when he was secretly delivered to their suburb. Can you blame them?

Fardon had served 27 years for raping two sisters. One of the sisters was 12 years of age and was raped at gunpoint in the middle of the day and her 15 year old sister was also assaulted.
On his release, Fardon breached his parole, as I have already mentioned.

Other infamous paedophiles who have been released into the community are Dennis Ferguson who kidnapped three children and sexually assaulted them over a period of three days. He was jailed for 14 years for sodomy, kidnapping etc and was assessed as being incapable of rehabilitation.

In spite of this assessment he was released in 2003 and eight months later was charged with molesting two children under 5 years of age. He was released once again in 2005. He then took a job selling cleaning products to schools. Not a good idea.

He has been hounded out of several Queensland towns because families are trying to protect their children.

Similarly, convicted killer and rapist, Paul Vincent Sutherland, was hounded out of his home following his release in 2006. The Supreme Court had rejected a government appeal to keep him locked up.

In August 2006, three times convicted paedophile, Eric Henri Van Dessel was discovered to be living near a school following his release. He agreed to move. Who knows where because the law is more interested in protecting culprits.

And so it goes on. Paedophiles ruin the lives of children and yet we’re supposed to allow them back into society after they have served their sentence. The problem is that the rate of recidivism for paedophiles is very high, over 66%. They will re-offend because they either can’t help themselves or don’t want to. There are currently 26 such offenders who have to be monitored.

The question has to be asked. “What will it take for the courts or the powers-that-be to realise that these paedophiles forfeited their right to rejoin society after committing such horrendous crimes?”

Surely society has to protect its citizens from outrageous villainy!

Corrective Services Minister, Judy Spence, is urging potential neighbours of the newly-rereleased Fardon to bear in mind that the man has to live somewhere. In my opinion he has just left the place where he belongs.

To its credit, the Queensland government did try to keep this recidivist in gaol longer under the new “Dangerous Prisoners and Sexual Offenders Act” of 2003, but the Supreme Court disagreed. I wanted to know why but when I asked the Department of Corrective Services they were not prepared to tell me why. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that the new act is not retrospective.

A point of interest is that the so-called expert who was counselling Fardon and many of the serial offenders was Dr Wendell Rosevear who admits that he is just a GP who has worked in prisons for 30 years. His solution to the problem of what to do to paedophiles is to value them, to encourage them to be honest and to encourage them to resist the temptation to offend. When asked in an ABC four corners interview in 2005 whether paedophilia can be cured he said that would be asking for magic. I remember wanting to scream when I heard Dr Rosevear speak two years ago. I urge everyone to listen to the interview online.

I don’t agree with the idea of a Megan’s Law because it will turn ordinary folk into vigilantes but I would like to see sexual offenders and particularly paedophiles in gaol for life. Why not place them in a restricted environment away from temptation?

Failing that I would like the Supreme Court Judge who released the paedohile back into society to take him into his own home. If the judge is so certain that the paedophile is no longer a threat to anyone, then Fardon could bunk in with the judge’s children or grandchildren?