Queensland's judiciary is sending a message to child sex offenders to 'go for it' with the recent release of several accused paedophiles, child safety campaigner Hetty Johnston believes.
Her comments come after a 58-year-old man was allowed to walk free from Brisbane District Court yesterday after he pleaded guilty to impregnating his 11-year-old step-daughter.
The 58-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, later married and divorced his step-daughter when she turned 18.
He was sentenced to 18 months' jail but was yesterday released on parole having served three months in prison since his arrest in March.
The case follows another decision last week which saw a 33-year-old man granted bail in Brisbane Magistrates Court after he allegedly raped a four-year-old and filmed the act.
Ms Johnston, head of child protection lobby group Bravehearts, said both cases showed the Queensland court system was incapable of protecting children from sex offenders.
"It's manifestly inadequate and it is an insult," Ms Johnson said of the sentence.
"The message to anyone who wants to have sex with a child is to 'go for it'.
"Don't worry about the law because there's no deterrent in the law, even if you get caught it will be treated like a misdemeanour and if you're unfortunate enough to go to jail it won't be for long.
"For the most part, you can expect you won't go to jail."
Ms Johnston said she believed the judiciary was becoming desensitised to child sex crimes and were not treating cases seriously enough.
She said she was particularly concerned Judge David Reid told the court that there was no evidence that the 58-year-old man who pleaded guilty to having sex with the 11-year-old had groomed the child, or initiated sexual conduct.
"The thing is at the time she was just a child, it is an absolutely ignorant statement to say no grooming took place," Ms Johnston said.
"Here's a man living with a child, they had sex ... of course there was grooming, there was familiarisation.
"If he is arguing that he just loved this child in the purest sense of the word that's absolute crock."
Ms Johnston called on Ms Bligh to hold an inquiry into the sentencing outcomes of child sex offenders as well as the outcomes for victims from court action.
"The system prefers to protect the civil rights of repeat child sex offenders than the human rights of children and that's the bottom line. It needs to change," she said.
"We can't just tinker at the edge of this. Let's look at how the system deals with child sex offenders and then lets look at the outcomes for victims and society generally.
"We as adults are letting our children down, we are betraying them everyday in our courtrooms."
Ms Johnston said Bravehearts had sent a request to the Attorney-General's office to appeal the sentence.
Attorney-General Paul Lucas has 28 days to consider an appeal.
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