A Sydney court has sentenced a 39-yr-old man to three to five years’ imprisonment for sexually assaulting a Holocaust survivor.
Robert Paul Webb was arrested in 2011 for the crime committed in 1991.
The victim was a 71-yr-old woman on her way to work in the Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst. She was threatened with a broken bottle and forced to perform oral sex. Her car was then stolen.
Webb was declared a suspect in 2011 following DNA testing. “The victim’s ordeal must have been terrifying … and the conduct of the offender was calculated to humiliate her,” Judge Ian McClintock said.
The victim is no longer alive.
The sentence of 3 to 5 years is much too short.
The lady who had survived the Shoah had endured more than her fair share of horrors, humiliation, loss and pain. Inflicting sexual abuse on her or any other person calls for a sentence that expresses the community’s disgust at such behaviour.
The do-gooders will claim that prison does not rehabilitate nor prevent recidivism. Hard labour in remote areas with few privileges and a quick return for any infraction would keep society safe and criminals in fear.