Judge Dan Konkin gives sweetheart deal to molester dad who ADMITTED to abuse of daughter; why is this judge on the bench? (Saskatoon, Canada)

What the hell is up with Justice Dan Konkin? UNNAMED DAD has ADMITTED to sexually abusing his daughter, but he won't be spending any time in jail. And this is a guy who has a prior record for molesting an unrelated child at a public swimming pool 20 years ago! Oh, no. Daddy's gonna do a "one year conditional term in the community." And that's all. Not only that, but Justice Konkin REFUSED to ban Dad from public places where children congregate, REJECTED a proposed firearms prohibition, and FAILED to order the dad to pay a victim impact surcharge for the conviction.

Short of tucking him in at night with milk and cookies, could Justice Konkin do anything more to coddle this habitual molester? Why is Justice Konklin allowed to disgrace the judiciary this way?

http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Abused+daughter+avoids+jail/2300743/story.html

Abused daughter, man avoids jail

By Lori Coolican, Saskatchewan News Network; Canwest News ServiceDecember 4, 2009

A Saskatoon man who admitted sexually abusing his own daughter during her childhood will not have to spend any time behind bars for it, a Queen's Bench judge ruled this week.

The 57-year-old, whose name can't be published in order to protect the victim's identity, already had a prior criminal record for molesting someone else's child at the Lakeview swimming pool about 20 years ago.

However, in passing sentence Wednesday, Justice Dan Konkin rejected a Crown recommendation to ban him from public places where children congregate while he serves a one-year conditional term in the community for the crime against his daughter.

Konkin also rejected the Crown's recommendation for a 10-year firearms prohibition against the man and did not order him to pay a victim impact surcharge for the conviction.

Konkin ordered the child molester to complete 100 hours of community service as part of his punishment.

Crown prosecutor Cory Bliss said an appeal of the sentence is likely.

The Crown has already appealed Konkin's decision earlier this year to acquit the same man of sexual abuse charges connected to his younger daughter, who alleged he had fondled and eventually raped her in a long series of incidents during the 1980s and early 1990s.

He pleaded guilty to a single charge of indecent assault against his older daughter, now a grown woman who delivered an emotionally charged statement during his sentencing hearing this fall.

"Sexual abuse by your own father is like being murdered. Except you keep on living. And you just carry the carcass of your murdered childhood with you," she told court.

"I ask your honour, how will you stop him? He will not stop himself."

Speaking to The StarPhoenix after learning of her father's community-based sentence this week, the woman expressed profound disappointment with the judge's decision.

She broke her silence in order to protect other innocent potential victims, she said.

Following his conviction in 1990 for fondling a little girl at the Lakeview public pool, her father got a harsher penalty than he did in this case, she noted -- a 90-day jail sentence, which he was allowed to serve on weekends. Meanwhile, she and other members of the family have struggled with emotional repercussions that continue into the present.

Karen Wood, a researcher with the Saskatchewan Population Health Evaluation Research Unit who specializes in sexual abuse and healing, was in court to hear Konkin's sentencing decision Wednesday.

"To me, the message is that the victim is being re-victimized," Wood said in an interview. "It's basically minimizing the extraordinary impact of abuse and disregarding the lifetime effect that it can have."

A light sentence also tends to downplay the difficulty faced by the victim in deciding to reveal the abuse at all, she added.

"A lot of women don't do that. It's an extraordinary process and it takes a lot of strength. So then to have that sentence, it basically disregards, to me, the impact of the abuse on her."

Society's general lack of awareness about the sexual abuse of children is discouraging, Wood said. In most cases, the perpetrator is a trusted family member or friend, she noted.

"There are many people in the very fields that need to be most sensitized, (who are not) -- like justice. There's more awareness in the health field in general, and I see a lot of sensitized Crown prosecutors and lawyers in general. But you can't count on it."