Aussie Pedo: A vile paedophile who raped his Thai girlfriend’s two-year-old daughter dozens of times should have his sentence reduced because he suffered ‘torture’ the last time he was in prison, his lawyers argue.
Sentencing for the Queensland child rapist Jason Daron Mizner has been delayed because the judge was so shaken by video of the assaults she needed a break to ensure a fair sentence.
Mizner has already pleaded guilty to more than 60 child sex offences relating to a two-year-old girl, from the early 2000s, including more than 30 counts of rape and video taping the assaults.
In the Brisbane District Court on Tuesday, Justice Leanne Clare said she had viewed a portion of one of the tapes and found it ‘very confronting’.
‘I think it would be best to put some distance between the viewing of that tape and the delivery of the judgment so that it does not overwhelm the sentence,’ Justice Clare said, adjourning proceedings until Friday.
The prosecution wants the 44-year-old jailed for life.
‘I think it would be best to put some distance between the viewing of that tape and the delivery of the judgment so that it does not overwhelm the sentence,’ Justice Clare said, adjourning proceedings until Friday.
The prosecution wants the 44-year-old jailed for life.
But Mizner’s lawyers argued his years in prison in Thailand for a separate sexual assault of another young child there should be taken into account, because of the abuse he suffered at the hands of other inmates while incarcerated.
‘He received beatings and other torture, partly in relation to (the Australian) offending,’ Mizner’s lawyer said.
‘The Australian Federal Police gave evidence at the (Thai) hearing about the Australian offending, so it’s not much of a stretch that inmates in Thailand would have known.’
Justice Clare disputed that just because Mizner had a difficult time in a Thai jail that he should have his potential sentence reduced.
‘The report outlines deprivations and abuses that your client has described, but to say he’s been tortured for 11 years is an overstatement of the material, frankly,’ Justice Clare said.
The court was told Mizner, who was 31 at the time of the assaults, formed a relationship with the Australian girl’s mother, before committing the offences over a number of months.
While he was on a holiday in Thailand, the girl’s mother found videos he had made and a range of other unrelated child exploitation material.
Mizner stayed in Thailand, where he formed a relationship with a local woman before assaulting her young daughter and being arrested by Thai authorities.
He served 11 years of a 35-year sentence and was deported when released on bail last year, with Australian authorities arresting him when he returned to Brisbane.
It’s the second time sentencing has been delayed, after a delay in September, when a doctor preparing a psychological report for the court suffered a heart attack.
That report, the defence argued, showed that a motorcycle accident when Mizner was 21 left him with a brain injury, which ‘uninhibited’ him.
Justice Clare said it also showed he had a ‘predilection for babies’ and had a medium-to-high chance of re-offending if not incarcerated.
‘Even a low risk of re-offending when it comes to raping babies is a substantial risk to deal with. When it’s a medium-to-high risk… it’s alarming,’ she said.
