Canada: Child molester's 'unduly and harsh sentence' gets halved
Ottawa, Feb 20 (IBNS): An appeal court has reduced the jail term of a 74-year old man, who is accused of molesting several young girls, to 30 months from original 5 years, media reports said.
The court has cited the original jail term, that is 5 years, was out of parity with the offence and the judge termed as it "unduly and harsh".
Girls who were sexually ill-treated by Reginald O'Keefe are all now women.
The women came forward in 2014 after O'Keefe was accused of molesting a three-year old girl.
Justice Lois Hoegg was quoted by CTV News saying, "There was no intercourse, but in some cases the girls were held captive and assaulted in circumstances which instilled great fear".
Hoegg stated it requires "a sentence to be 'proportionate to the gravity of the offence and the degree of responsibility of the offender and 'where consecutive offences are imposed, the combined sentence should not be unduly long or harsh".
Regarding the judgement, Hoegg told CBC News that judges "take one last look at the total sentence to determine whether it is unduly long or harsh, in the sense of it being disproportionate to the gravity of the offence and the degree of responsibility of the offender".
She added: "I am of the view that his sentence of 60 months is unduly long and harsh in the circumstances."
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