Judge Refuses to Jail Pedophile Who Abused 6 Kids: He's 'Too Fat' for Prison
Morbidly obese teacher Peter John O'Neill plead guilty to abusing six children
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A judge has refused to jail a morbidly obese pedophile who plead guilty to sexually abusing six children because he's "too fat" to go to prison.
Former teacher Peter John O'Neill, 61, won't spend a single day in jail because it would cost up to $40,000 just to transport him due to his weight, the court in Canberra, Austalia ruled.
O'Neill is now allowed to stay at home while he awaits the court's decision on sentencing.
The child abuser requires a full-time carer, needs to use a wheelchair, and has been deemed unfit to travel by the court.
Chief Justice Alan Blow said in a previous hearing he was limited to handing down a suspended jail sentence, according to The Mercury.
The judge argued that there was no point in placing O'Neill under home detention because he's "too fat" to leave anyway.
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O'Neill pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault and one count of penetrative sexual abuse of a young person and is due to be sentenced on August 25, according to The Daily Mail.
Former students expressed their anger in a Facebook group called Old Dominic Scholars:
"I couldn’t care less how sick this filth is — his final days should be in jail," one man said.
"Nothing will give back what he took, but he must pay in some way," wrote another.
Defence barrister Greg Barns SC said a medical charter aircraft to transport his client would cost between $25,000 to $40,000 in a previous court hearing.
The 61-year-old cannot serve time interstate for Tasmanian crimes, has no money to pay a fine, and cannot perform community service due to his medical conditions.
Rachel Grguervic, who left Dominic College in 1989 said: "If he doesn’t go to jail and just dies quietly, he doesn’t deserve that.
"I don’t get why these bastards get bloody protected all the time."
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Ms. Grguervic previously told The Mercury O’Neill wasn’t just a pedophile but a physical and emotional abuser.
"I was told that I was fat and dumb, that I’d never amount to anything, no-one would ever love me.
"If you weren’t concentrating he would hit your fingers with a ruler."
Baden Daly had a history of abuse before he attended the school and said he was physically and emotionally traumatized by O'Neill, who would hit him and put him down.
"To end up with him as a teacher, for him to do it all over again when I thought I was safe, it was traumatic.
"I don’t think an apology really cuts it," he said.
