GORDON WILLIAM INSTON South Australia

IN THE DISTRICT COURT
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
ADELAIDE
THURSDAY, 30 JULY 2009 AT 10.25 A.M.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR JUDGE BARRETT
NO.DCCRM-07-1612
R v GORDON WILLIAM INSTON
HIS HONOUR IN SENTENCING SAID:
Gordon William Inston, you have been found guilty by a jury of one count of unlawful sexual intercourse against a child under 12, and three counts of indecent assault against a child under 12. You were found not guilty of a further charge of unlawful sexual intercourse of a child under 12.
You committed the offences against two girls. In court I will refer to them by their names but their names will be suppressed in published sentencing remarks. Counts 1 and 3 on the charge sheet are offences against T. Count one is a count of unlawful sexual intercourse. It occurred in 1988 or 89 when T was 10 or 11. You put your fingers in her vagina. Count 3 is a charge of indecent assault. It occurred at Rapid Bay when she was about 11. You had been doing some church work with members of your family and went for a picnic at Rapid Bay. You put your hand on her breasts and pinched her nipples. I am satisfied that these offences against T were not isolated.
The jury was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that you had committed each of these acts, although it was not satisfied that you had committed another act. In respect of that act, the subject of count 2 on the charge sheet, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty and I ignore that act.
Nevertheless, I have no reason to think that the jury disbelieved T’s account of other offending by you against her. I accept her evidence beyond reasonable doubt. I find that there was a course of conduct of offending against T. I accept her evidence, that it started when she was about 6 and did not finish until she was about 13. When she was 6 you would start to tickle her and touch her on the chest under her underwear. This sometimes occurred in the presence of other female members of your family, but not, significantly, T’s father. As time went on you would touch her underneath her clothes on her genitals. She said that when she was young she came to regard it as the normal behaviour of a man. But as she became adolescent she realised it was wrong and tried to keep away from you. She suffered an anxiety attack when she was 15 and was committed to the Warrnambool Hospital.
In a victim impact statement she speaks about the effect that your offending has had on her life. She speaks of the pain that it has caused her. She says that, although she retains her faith, your behaviour as a church elder, caused her a lot of confusion. She has been receiving counselling and says it is necessary to continue to do that for some time.
You also abused J. Count 4 involves a count of indecent assault when at a picnic at Cape Jervis when she was about 7. You put your hands inside her clothes and touched her vagina quite quickly. Count 5 involves an incident when she was 11 when you sat her on a chair next to your computer. You there touched her on the breasts for about 10 minutes. As with T I find that the abuse of J was a course of conduct which started when she was about 4 and finished when she was about 12. She said the abuse started with you putting your hands down her pants. You would draw pictures of women with big breasts. You would tell rude jokes about women’s breasts and you did these things in front of other female members of your family. Again, you took care not to do those things in front of the girl’s father.
The other touching of J consisted of touching her on the breasts, her bottom and her vagina. The offending against the two girls was roughly between 1988 and 1994, some six years. You do not admit your offending. I am told that your wife and sons support you and, by that, I take it to mean that they do not believe that you have committed these offences.
Your offending represents an extended course of conduct against two young girls over a period of years. There are even more serious sorts of offending than yours which come before the court, but your offending is nevertheless very serious. It is a significant breach of trust. You have caused the girls a great deal of unhappiness and difficulty in their lives.
I turn to your personal circumstances. You are 75. You will be 76 in September. You were born and educated in Birmingham in the UK. When you left school you worked at the stock exchange for a while and studied medicine part-time. You took up national service in 1951 and became a medic with the RAF for about three years. You went back to the stock exchange as a share dealer for three or four years. You married in 1953 and it would appear that the four eldest of your children were born there. The younger two were born in Australia. You became a Jehovah’s Witness in 1960. When you came to South Australia you worked at the Libraries Board. You worked at Ampol as an area manager for many years. You ran a service station for a year and worked in a bank at Victor Harbor for a year. You worked for a carpet company; then you and your wife set up a business from home, making window treatments. One of your sons has taken over that business. You are an elder in the Jehovah’s Witness church. Your counsel tells me that the church and the congregation are supportive of you. I do not know whether that is on the basis that you did or did not commit these offences.
As a member of the church you have continuously been involved in community work. You have a variety of health problems which are kept under control by medical treatment. Your wife suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and, as a consequence, you do most of the housework. You have no prior convictions whatsoever. As I have mentioned earlier you have the support of your sons. The maximum penalties for these offences are, for the offence of unlawful sexual intercourse against a child under 12, is life imprisonment and, for the three indecent assault offences against a child under 12, each carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment.
I turn to sentence. I’ve already acknowledged that more serious cases of offending against children come before this court. However, yours was a protracted interfering with the girls over a number of years. You do not admit what you have done and the girls have to get on with their lives in the face of your continuing denials. You are not entitled to any discount on your sentence by virtue of guilty pleas or contrition. I will impose one sentence of imprisonment for all four offences but I take each into account. I impose a head sentence of four years imprisonment.
I am very conscious of your age. You are nearly 76. You have no prior convictions. You have a good work record and have done much community work. You have some health problems and the prospect of going to prison recently caused you to take an overdose of painkillers. Having particular regard to your age, I fix a lower non-parole period than I might otherwise have done. I impose a non-parole period of 15 months imprisonment.
I have already mentioned matters, which might suggest it, would be appropriate to suspend the sentence: your age, lack of antecedents and your community work. On the other hand, this is a serious course of conduct against the girls who were entitled to your protection, not to your abuse and, in these circumstances, I do not see good reason to suspend the sentence. You will have to serve it; it will begin today.
ADJOURNED 10.35 A.M.
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