Dad who sexually abused daughter has jail term increased (Victoria, Australia)

The excuses these rapist daddies come up with never cease to amaze me. UNNAMED DAD had Asperger's syndrome, so he failed to "process" his daughter's "affective cues"? What a load of horse patootie. Note that Daddy only started to "process" wrong when her mother was out of town, and she was not available to protect her daughter.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/fathers-jail-term-increased-in-sex-case-20110405-1d2y1.html

Father's jail term increased in sex case Adrian Lowe
April 6, 2011

A FATHER of two who subjected his 11-year-old daughter to horrific sexual abuse has had his jail term increased after the Court of Appeal found the original sentencing judge incorrectly attributed the offending to Asperger's syndrome.

The father, who cannot be named, abused his daughter for seven months in 2009 when his wife was not home.

When asked why he had abused his daughter in such a way, the father, 47, replied: ''Just as an experiment … it was just sexual gratification for myself'' and conceded that he knew what he was doing was wrong.

Advertisement: Story continues below In a unanimous decision yesterday, appeal judges Pamela Tate, Marcia Neave and Philip Mandie ruled that the original sentence of County Court judge Frank Shelton last year of 7½ years' jail, with a minimum of 5½ years, was manifestly inadequate.

The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed the sentence on the grounds of manifest inadequacy, error in finding Asperger's syndrome was causally linked to the offending and failure to make appropriate cumulation between the sentences on individual counts.

The father pleaded guilty to five counts of incest and three of committing an indecent act in the presence of a child.

In the lead judgment, Justice Tate described the offending as ''very grave'' and as at the higher end of the scale for such offences. He said a specialist report indicated that those with Asperger's syndrome ''have significant difficulty in processing cues, affective cues'' and that offences they may commit include stalking and assault.

But it was assessed that the father's intelligence would not have been compromised by the syndrome.

In his sentence, Judge Shelton said it was possible that the father could have ''misinterpreted his daughter's cues'' - but the evidence of a psychologist was that the father did not believe his offending had any effect on his daughter.

Justice Tate said the evidence gave little or no support for the proposition that the father misunderstood his daughter's behaviour as providing encouragement to him, and the psychologist's opinion did not allow for a finding that he could have misread the cues.

She said Judge Shelton's conclusion of Asperger's syndrome being causally connected was an error, adding that the sentence was reduced too much in favour of the syndrome. The appeal judges increased the father's sentence to 9½ years, with a minimum of 6½.