A four-year-old girl was playing in a front yard in a Darwin town camp when a man lured her into a house with the promise of watermelon. Inside, he removed her nappy and violently raped her, then tied the nappy back in place. Her mother found her walking home in tears, bleeding, repeating “the big man, the big man”.
Earlier this month, the Northern Territory Supreme Court sentenced Nathaniel Farrell, 34, to 10 years’ jail for that crime, with a non-parole period of seven years.
He will be eligible for parole in 2032 – just six years from now, before his victim has even finished primary school.
This sentence fails the child, her family and the wider community.
Chief Justice Michael Grant did not play down the offending.
“The child was very young and vulnerable, the offending conduct was brazen,” he said, placing it “towards the upper end of the range in terms of objective seriousness”.
He noted Farrell’s long history of violence against women and of breaching parole and domestic violence orders, saying he “presents a continuing danger to the community, and particularly female members of that community”.
“His prospects of rehabilitation must be considered as all but extinguished,” the Chief Justice said.
If a court accepts that an offender is dangerous, unlikely to change and guilty of a crime near the top of the scale, the community is entitled to ask why he may be released in six years.
A sentence must protect the public, not simply mark time.
This case involved one victim. Yet across Australia, even offenders who abused more than one child, or abused the same child again and again, are receiving sentences that fall well short of community expectations.
In Ballarat, a man found guilty by a jury of seven counts of sexually penetrating his young neighbour was given a non-parole period of five years.
In March, the Victorian Court of Appeal agreed that was manifestly inadequate, and raised it to six years and three months.
But even the amended sentence amounts to less than a year behind bars for each offence.
In Dubbo, a stepfather convicted in late 2024 of abusing his stepdaughter while she was in primary school received a non-parole period of just two years and three months.
On the NSW South Coast last year, a 27-year-old who pleaded guilty to nine counts of sexual intercourse with an underaged child, as well as producing and distributing child abuse material, received a non-parole period of two and a half years. He was due for parole in May.
In Brisbane in July, 79-year-old Colin Max Behan, who pleaded guilty to seven offences including the attempted rape of a 10-year-old girl in a park and procuring a 12-year-old for sex, was told he could be eligible for parole within months.
And the list goes on….
Mind you, the courts can act firmly when they choose to.
Former childcare worker Ashley Griffith received life with a 27-year non-parole period for 307 offences against 65 children, a sentence upheld on appeal in June.
But Australia’s worst cases cannot be the only ones that attract serious punishment.
In Islam, children are an amanah – a trust from Allah.
Protecting them is a duty shared by parents, communities, governments and the legal system.
A sentence is the clearest statement a society makes about how seriously it takes that duty.
When a child’s abuser can walk free before they start high school, the message to victims is that their suffering counts for little.
What needs to change:
- the Northern Territory Director of Public Prosecutions should carefully consider an appeal against the leniency of Farrell’s sentence;
- state and territory governments need to review sentencing and non-parole periods for child sexual offences, particularly where the abuse is repeated or involves multiple children; and
- parole authorities must put the safety of children ahead of every other consideration.
A little girl went out to play and came home bleeding. Her life will never be the same again.
Her attacker may be eligible for release before she is a teenager.
That is not justice.
If this story has affected you, contact Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831.
