Keith Richard Draper
ANGRY victims of a serial pedophile confronted him outside court yesterday when he walked free after his fifth conviction.
Keith Richard Draper was released on a good behavior bond and fined $200 after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting his niece, 11.
Draper, 67, has served only a month in jail despite pleading guilty to sex of fences five times in the past three years.
He has effectively been treated as a first offender by the courts on all five occasions because of the dates of the offenses and the order in which they were heard by the courts.
The magistrate was not told that Draper, a former teacher, had previously pleaded guilty to four other offenses and his known sex crimes spanned more than 30 years.
Two of Draper’s victims and the parents of two others yesterday called for the law to be changed to allow all previous appearances to be taken into account, not just convictions pre-dating the offense before the court.
“It’s the process, not just the penalty today, that is a farce and needs fixing,” the father of a seven-year-old girl assaulted by Draper said outside court.
Magistrate Paresa Spanos, who dealt with Draper at Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court yesterday, was unaware of his previous convictions.
Ms Spanos was told there were no other matters to be considered when she asked whether there was anything known about Draper’s record before sentencing him.
She told Draper that because he came before the court “without any prior history at all” he was entitled to be treated as a person of good character.
Ms Spanos said Draper must be a relatively law-abiding person to have lived to his age without otherwise coming to the attention of the police.
Attorney-General Rob Hulls said last night he was seeking legal advice on the Sentencing Act to ensure it was in line with case law.
“The common law allows subsequent convictions to be viewed as part of an offender’s past history,” Mr Hulls said.
He said he could not comment on a specific case or sentence. A spokesman for the Office of Public Prosecutions said the DPP could appeal against a magistrates’ court decision, but normally relied on police to seek a review because of the volume of lower court cases.
The only time Draper has been jailed was for a month after his first court appearance on three counts of aggravated indecent assault of a seven-year-old girl.
He has also been convicted of indecent assault twice, performing an indecent act on a child, and possession of child pornography.
Draper has twice been given suspended prison sentences. He has been fined a total of $3200.
Sue Hughes, the victim in the case dealt with yesterday, was 11 when Draper assaulted her when she was left in his care for a few days in 1967, while her parents dealt with a family bereavement.
Ms Hughes said she was warned to expect yesterday’s outcome.
“But it just seems so unfair that he seems to get away with so much so often,” she said outside court.
“I don’t blame the magistrate. She was in the dark about the true facts, and it seems to us the law is in the Dark Ages.”
Ms Hughes said police had only been able to charge Draper with one offense against her because she could nominate only one date when she was assaulted.
“But trust me, there were heaps and heaps and heaps of others,” she said.
She said police had explained the difficulty of getting a conviction over such an old offense involving an adult and a child without independent evidence.
Draper, now living in Cranbourne, came to police notice in 1998 when child pornography was seized from his Oakleigh South home.
One of the people who abused him outside court yesterday had to identify photographs of his naked seven-year-old daughter after the police raid.
Another was a mother who found Draper taking photographs of her 10-year-old daughter in the bedroom of their home in a Melbourne suburb in 1998.
Another was a 31-year-old Geelong woman who was 10 when she was assaulted by Draper during a sleepover with his daughter in another town 20 years ago.
All said they were certain there were many other victims who had not come forward.
“We know he’s been offending for 35 years, so God knows how many lives he’s damaged,” one said.
Colac detective Sergeant John Postma said after yesterday’s case that he supported a review of the law.
Sgt Postma said the case had to be treated as a first offense because the assault pre-dated the four other matters that had already been to court.
A victims’ group called for courts to take an offender’s entire criminal history into account.
Australians Against Child Abuse chief executive officer Joe Tucci said the legal system unfairly discriminated against child victims.
“I have often argued that the courts can be manipulated by a perpetrator of sex offenses, because they’re grand manipulators,” he said.
This is the wrong photo. This is not Keith Richard Draper as described in the content
I am the neice who took him to court. This is definately not him.
Hi Susan….
I see no picture on this post. There is a picture of Noel on the top right of the page, but I see no other picture.
It is nathan i would love to here from you susan my cousin kieth draper is a dog and should be killed for what he has done.
No it is me just back from holidays we will soon get the photo removed. cheers
You should either take the photo off this page or write a caption explaining who you are, and that you are not the person referred to on the page. Susan Hughes told you in early January and you said you would remove it in late January. It’s now March and you haven’t done it.
Are you happy now John?
Draper is one of the low life pedophiles,”arn’t they all” this scumbag has had a dream run in our courts, and has the hide of an elephant, if any one has a recent photo and address we would love to give him his 15 minuetes of pain
Susan, hope you are well and taking care of yourself.