Victim-blaming indecent assaulter gets community detention after reparation offer
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/81065973/victimblaming-indecent-assaulter-gets-community-detention-after-reparation-offer
A victim-blaming man, whose wife ran a smear campaign against a woman he indecently assaulted while drunkenly trying to score with her, has avoided prison and home detention partly because he offered to pay reparation to his victim.
Judge Gerard Lynch said Bruce Leslie Weber had shown no true remorse for the 30-minute ordeal he put a woman through while she was alone in her home.
Weber, 44, was sentenced in the Palmerston North District Court on Tuesday to six months’ community detention, 150 hours’ community work and nine months’ supervision for one representative charge of indecent assault.
During the sentencing exercise, the judge said part of the reason why Weber was given community detention instead of the more restrictive home detention was because of his offer to pay $5000 reparation to the victim of the August 2015 assault.
“Emotional harm reparation by someone who can afford it will not sit comfortably with some,” the judge said.
“Nonetheless, it is a payment [Weber] elected to make, not on the hoof this afternoon, but following serious consideration with counsel.
“I don’t see it as a case where you are essentially buying a result. It would be wrong for me not to take it into account.”