Let the penalty fit the crime - The Centre for Independent Studies

In November 2018, a seven-year-old girl was savagely raped by a man in the toilet of a Sydney dance studio. The month before, a two-year-old girl was brutally raped by a man in a Tennant Creek home. Last month, the Sydney rapist, Anthony Sampieri, was rightly sentenced to life in prison for his heinous crime. Described as “every parent’s worse nightmare” by the sentencing judge, Sampieri will live the rest of his life behind bars.

In contrast, the Tennant Creek rapist, Kingsley Corbett, was sentenced on Friday to just 13 years’ jail with a non-parole period of nine years (backdated to September 2018).

Sampieri was particularly depraved in his actions. He had punched the young victim, threatened her with a knife and tied a cord around her neck. When parents came to her rescue he cut the hand of the mother of the victim and stabbed another parent in the neck and stomach. The young victim will have to live with the trauma for the rest of her life. Her rescuers also will live with their trauma. Sampieri’s sentence is appropriate for the crime. He will no longer be a danger to society and our streets will be safer without him.

Corbett’s 13-year sentence pales in comparison with Sampieri’s. Corbett was not confronted by anyone while he carried out his rape of the toddler. He took her from beside her sleeping mother into another room to commit his crimes. Her injuries caused her bleeding that would lead to the need for a blood transfusion and left her with a sexually transmitted disease. She too must live with the trauma of the crime committed against her and yet in nine years the monster who did this might be back on our streets.

It is likely that Corbett will end up living back in the same community as his victim. This is all too common an occurrence for Aboriginal victims of sexual assault in remote communities.

It is also common that Aboriginal perpetrators of violence and sexual assault are given more lenient sentences in comparison to non-Aboriginal offenders – a likely consequence of the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody. These two cases are a blatant example of such sentencing comparisons.

Corbett’s victim will be 11 years old by the time he is out. How is it justifiable that an Aboriginal toddler from a remote town is not afforded the same justice for a crime just as appalling as that committed by a non-Aboriginal perpetrator against a non-Aboriginal victim in an Australian capital city?

As a nation, we should be outraged. The streets are not safe when perpetrators are given more lenient sentences because of their ethnicity. Especially when their victims are predominantly of the same ethnicity. This seems to me to be more racial bias at play and it has no place in a society where the human rights of us all are supposed to be upheld.

Crown prosecutor Glen Dooley said Corbett’s offending was in the “worst category” and carried a maximum penalty of life. “This is a crime that deeply disturbed the Tennant Creek community and the nation,” he said. “He displayed no remorse.”

Is this also another example of the progressive reduction of sentences for rape? Over the years, Australia has seen initial jail sentences for rape increasingly shorten — and then be cut further. Even gang rape leader Bilal Skaf could be free on parole soon after his original 55-year sentence was whittled down on appeal.

We must insist on asking on behalf of the Tennant Creek toddler — and other victims across the country — where is the sentence to fit the crime?