Kmart predator Sterling Free lured a little girl from the Kmart toy aisle and sexually assaulted her in bushland
Furious parents and politicians say the government must immediately seek a stronger sentence for a paedophile who abducted a child from a shopping centre and molested her in bushland.
Sterling Mervyn Free was jailed for eight years on Friday after pleading guilty to taking a child for immoral purposes, deprivation of liberty and the indecent treatment of a child under 12, but could be free on parole in less than two years.
An online petition demanding the government appeal the ‘lenient’ sentence has gained almost 7,500 signatures in a matter of days.
‘It is yet another pathetic example of how our legal system has very little to do with justice for survivors of crime and even less to do with protecting our children from known threats,’ the petition reads.
‘We… implore the QLD Attorney General Ms D’Ath, to appeal this sentence and show that we as a community are being heard, and our justifiable concerns are being addressed.’
Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath has 30 days to seek a review of the sentence.
The court heard Free, a 27-year-old father-of-two, lured the seven-year-old girl from the toy aisle of a Kmart store at Westfield North Lakes, north of Brisbane on December 18.
He took her to bushland about 30 minutes away, sexually assaulted her and returned her to the centre more than an hour later.
In a chilling revelation the court heard while driving back to the shops Free ‘snapped out of it’ and broke down in tears — ‘feeling horrible’ about what he had done and how the girl’s mother would react.
The Courier Mail reports that the confused young girl turned to him at that point and asked her attacker if he ‘was OK’.
In a letter to the court – that was later read out loud to journalists – Free said: ‘I can only ever say sorry. I know that this is not good enough’
Bruce Morcombe, father of murdered Sunshine Coast boy Daniel Morcombe, has called for a national sex offender website following Free’s sentence.
Deputy state opposition leader Tim Mander also wants the government to urgently appeal the ‘manifestly inadequate’ sentence.
‘The thought that this sexual predator could be roaming the streets free in two years time would send a chill up every parent’s spine,’ he said on Saturday.
In a statement, read outside court by Free’s defence lawyer Shaune Irving, the vile predator admitted: ‘I took away her innocence and scared her family.
‘I hope that today my sentence provides her and her family some hope for the future,’ he said. ‘I can only ever say sorry.
‘I know that is not good enough’.
But the girl’s mother was ‘shaken’ that Free could be back on the streets in less than two years, although she had been warned that could be the case.
Prominent child safety campaigner Bruce Morcombe said outside court: ‘I fear for the children of Queensland and the children of Australia’.
Free leads the little girl away from Brisbane’s Westfield North Lakes, in footage shown to the court
The little girl was searching the toy aisles for a present while her mother stood nearby, when the predator led her away
In delivering her sentence, the judge recalled how the Kmart store was crowded that afternoon in December 2018.
‘The mother waited in the centre while the complainant looked for a toy,’ she recalled.
Meanwhile, Free was likewise at North Lakes Westfield ‘window shopping’ for Christmas presents.
Security camera footage captured him lurking about the toy aisle for 20 minutes, the judge said.
‘I found this video footage … chilling. (Your behaviour) warrants the description ‘opportunistic and predatory,’ she said.
It wasn’t long until the mother realised her daughter had disappeared. Free later confessed that he had told the victim ‘follow me’ and led her away.
He drove her to remote Pumicestone Passage, where he sexually assaulted her.
Meanwhile, the alarmed mother had spoken to store staff, and soon enough a security guard had found vision of the girl being walked out of the shop by Free.
At 2.23pm, a security guard noticed the girl arriving back at the shopping centre, having been dropped off by the T-shirt wearing sex offender.
‘Sometime later her mother noticed two long scratch marks down her back,’ the judge said.
‘The child refused to tell how she got them and wouldn’t tell the police when they tried to talk to her.’
CHILD PREDATOR STERLING FREE’S LETTER TO THE COURT
Child predator Sterling Free wrote a letter to the court, which was read out by his lawyer outside the court complex today
‘I accept full responsibility for my actions against the young girl. I know the enormous pain I have caused her, her family, my own family and children.
‘I today accept without reservation the punishment imposed by the justice system today.
‘I do not wish to cause any further pain to the young victim or her family or delay justice any further.
‘I cannot comprehend the pain that I have caused her. I took away her innocence and scared her family.
‘I hope that today my sentence provides her and her family some hope for the future.
‘I can only ever say sorry. I know that this is not good enough.
‘I’m not looking for forgiveness but only to let you know the harm that I have done, the harm that I have caused.
‘I cannot imagine the pain and fear I have caused. I can’t take that back.
‘To my family, the shock you have had to deal with, the public scrutiny was immense, my children deserve better.
‘They will now grow up without a father and I can only blame myself. I cannot comprehend the damage I have caused. I will seek treatment to ensure this doesn’t occur again.
‘I am committed to using my incarceration to seek professional assistance that I duly require.’
The images were sent out to police statewide, with two officers coming forward to say they recognised him as Sterling Free.
One officer had seen him holding the girl’s hand at the shops, while another believed him to be a previous employee of their father.
In a police interview, Free freely admitted he had noticed the victim and then ‘the urges crept in’. He confessed to what he had done.
He had a criminal history involving property offences but not similar charges to this nature, the judge said.
The judge considered evidence from a psychologist that he had provisionally been diagnosed with a paedophilic disorder and was addicted to online porn.
She also acknowledged he was a victim of child sexual abuse himself, and that victims are more likely to offend in the future.
But, she said, ‘the family (of the victim) continues to suffer anxiety which is easily understood.’
‘It is easy to imagine the mother’s distress in the circumstances and you acknowledged as much.’
The girl’s mother remained composed throughout the sentencing. Several of her supporters appeared upset at the decision.
Anatomy of a crime: Sterling Free (on left) abducted the girl as she milled about the toy aisle at Kmart North Lakes on December 8, 2018, while he was Christmas shopping
Free appeared grim throughout the sentencing, his hands clasped in front of him.
The victim’s family were accompanied by a sizeable police contingent and child protection advocates Bruce and Denise Morcombe.
Mr Morcombe said the mother was ‘shaken’ by the sentence but ‘she was in a space where the advisers had indicated that was probably where (the sentence) was going to sit’.
‘Let’s hope he is cured of this sickness, but I find the sentence inadequate in terms of setting a deterrent.’
Free has spent 306 days in custody, including five months in solitary confinement. The girl is receiving counselling and is being actively supported by her family.
‘MY TINY INNOCENT GIRL WAS AWARE OF STRANGER DANGER’: MOTHER OF VICTIM SPEAKS
Free worked at Fantastic Furniture and is the father of twins
The mother of a little girl abducted from a Kmart store and taken into bushland where she was sexually assaulted has spoken for the first time about her child’s horrific ordeal.
On the day the child’s attacker, Sterling Mervyn Free, 27, is due to be sentenced, the victim’s mother said no punishment will ever fit the crime committed upon her daughter.
The mother was shopping with her child at Westfield North Lakes, when Free lured the girl away.
‘My tiny innocent girl was well aware of stranger danger, however this person was friendly to her and tricked her into following him,’ the mother said in a statement.
‘No child should ever have to go through this type of trauma, and no sentence will ever be long enough to make up for the ongoing effects this will have on her.’
‘We, as a family, remain positive and are trying to move forward. We would like to thank the Queensland Police Service, the Queensland DPP and the Australian public for their support throughout this ordeal’.