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A man who indecently recorded and sexually abused up to 75 children in the toy section of department stores has had his jail term cut.

In a case described by the sentencing judge as “every parents’ worst nightmare”, Peter Anthony Lewsam deliberately went to the toy section to target girls aged between two and 10, reports ABC NEWS.

He was originally sentenced to 16-and-a-half years’ jail, but today in a unanimous decision the Court of Appeal reduced the term to 12 years.

Lewsam had argued the term was “crushingly heavy”, and did not give him “a proper measure of hope for, and encouragement to, rehabilitation and reform”.

The appeal was allowed after the Director of Public Prosecutions accepted the original term “failed to bear a proper relationship to the overall criminality involved in all of the offences”.

In his ruling, Justice Robert Mitchell said while the offences involved “a very serious course of criminal conduct”, the 16-and-a-half-year term “exceeded sentences customarily imposed in even the most serious cases”.

Lewsam had pleaded guilty last year to more than 120 charges including indecently recording a child under 16, and sexual penetration of a child.

He recorded the abuse on his mobile phone while in some instances the child was with a sibling, or their parents were in the next aisle.

Only one of his victims was identified because her father interrupted Lewsam and he was subsequently arrested.

Lewsam will have to serve 10 years before he can be released.

With time already served his earliest release date is in 2025.

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  • Crushingly heavy?!! He has scarred these children for life, and some will never tell another adult about it. How can they reduce his sentence with evidence of this many offences? And how many more don’t they know about?

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  • I agree, they should have harsher sentences and should NEVER be reduced, no matter how they behave in prison.

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  • I do not understand why Judges sentence someone to x number of years and then later alter and say ” ok you can get out earlier now” …isnt that like just admitting that they made a mistake with the original sentence? And how dumb to say its reduced for good behaviour. uumm they are in prison for goodness sake….not like the same temptations exsist there.

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  • Across the board sentencing needs to be harsher. Prison time should act as both a deterrent and to keep dangerous people off the streets. This man is a monster; the original sentence wasn’t even harsh enough.

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  • When are the judges going to learn that these monsters can’t be rehabilitated. This is terrible

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  • I just sigh ..why oh why is this monster given a reduced sentence. Lock him up and throw away the key.

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  • I think most people would feel his term should have been increased.

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  • Wow how sad for the kids he has hurt.

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  • I think it is disgusting that his sentence was reduced. And I don’t believe chemical castration is the way, do it the old fashioned way! He acts like a monster,….be treated like one.

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  • I don’t agree with the reduction of his sentence. He molested so many kids! :-(

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  • No sentence would be enough for this monster.


    • He should have an increase to the original 16.5 sentence, because this disgusting monster has ruined so many innocent children’s lives.

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  • 16 years for over 120 counts of molestation and they say its too harsh? These children had innocence destroyed, this man filmed it, premeditated his acts. At a minimum he deserves chemical castration along with life imprisonment.


    • I agree with you and he should never be released. He can’t even be given a year for each case because nobody has lived to be that old. He should be given hard labour too.

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  • No way do I think the original term of 16 years was too harsh. He’s abusing children, throw the book at him! For all they know, the abuse in the toy section could be a stepping stone to worse crimes, he’s already sexually penetrated a child. The court should be sacked for reducing his sentence

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  • Is there really any hope of rehabilitation with pedophiles? I doubt it.

    Reply

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