Legal Studies
Pedophile jailed for life – Video trapped Australia’s worst
The article Pedophile jailed for life is about a man Geoffrey Robert Dobbs. Geoffrey Robert Dobbs is a 48-year-old man who may have as stated in the article preyed on more than 250 girls.
Dobb’s crime was unveiled by accident when he left a video of him molesting a young girl in his video camera after leaving it at a Melbourne shop for repairs. It was found that 150 girls were molested before Dobbs purchased his first video recorder in 1985 and he has committed an extremely large amount of molestations since then.
It is a serious indictable offence to take part in a sexual act with a child between the ages of 10 and 16, if you are more than two years older than the person is, regardless of consent, this law was broken by Dobb’s on numerous occasions.
In terms of Human rights, Dobb’s has also broken two articles stated in Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The first one is article number five which states that ‘no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’, and the second one is article number 12(a), which states that ‘no one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home, or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation.’ This article was broken when Dobb’s invaded peoples privacy by secretly videoing young girls, in public places or at his home whilst molesting them.
In Dobb’s case he did not commit the disgusting crime on one occasion, but he repeatedly committed the crime on various young girls. His sickening actions seem to have become an incurable habit.
Although Dobb’s has committed these crimes the court has not yet attempted to rehabilitate him. Some people may argue that due to Dobb’s behaviour being repetitive over a long period of time, it too late to try and rehabilitate him. On the other hand some may oppose by saying that he has not yet had the chance to rehabilitate and get his life back on track therefore how do we know whether or not he can change his ways?
District Court Judge Kerry O’Brien said he was certain that Dobb’s would re-offend if ever released. “ I am satisfied that if an indefinite sentence is not imposed members of the community will be at risk of serious harm.” He said. The Judge backed his statement up by saying that the court heard that Dobb’s obsession might have continued in jail, as newspaper photographs of young children were found hidden among his legal instructions. Clearly Dobb’s assaulting young girls has become an irreversible obsession and there is a very slim chance that he will never fully recover.