A court decision to free a pensioner who admitted sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl has caused anger in the North. The ruling came after another court, two days earlier, had jailed the girl's father for assaulting the man. Frederick Gerald Hunter (75), a former resident of a nursing home in Co Antrim, pleaded guilty last Wednesday to indecently assaulting the girl, now 13. He received two years' probation on condition that he undertook a programme of treatment. He was also placed on the sex offenders' register for five years.
Two days earlier the girl's father and a friend were each sentenced to 6-1/2 years in prison after the court heard they had assaulted Hunter with a knife and hatchet, ransacked his house and stolen his car in September 1999. Hunter suffered fractures to his skull, face, arms and legs.
The girl's father, who cannot be named to protect her identity, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm.
Describing the outcome of the cases as "an outrage", the Ulster Unionist MP for East Derry, Mr William Ross, yesterday pledged to raise the matter with the British Lord Chancellor. "I am currently seeking legal advice, but I have no intention of accepting the undue severity of the one sentence compared to the undue leniency of the other," he said.
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster, the girl's mother said her daughter was now blaming herself for what had happened to her father.
"She was closer to her daddy than to me and would really need him here. She has gone downhill ever since he was sent to prison. She's just not the same, she's all mixed-up. She's going to get counselling but she doesn't want to talk about it."
The mother, who is now separated from the father, said she did not blame her husband for his actions.
A Progressive Unionist councillor, Mr David Gilmour, called on the Director of Public Prosecutions to review the case. While not condoning the assault on Hunter, he accused the judiciary of being completely out of touch with public opinion.
Ms Eileen Calder from the Rape Crisis Centre in Belfast described the outcome as "incredible", adding: "This proves what we have been saying all along, namely that victims feel failed by the courts, who protect sex offenders time and again."
Passing sentence on the father and his friend on Monday at Ballymena Crown Court, sitting in Belfast, the judge, Mr Justice Girvan, noted that the assault had been committed "under provocation".