JUDGE BLASTED FOR LETTING PAEDO WALK FREE
JUDGE BLASTED FOR LETTING PAEDO WALK FREE A PERVERT who sexually assaulted two young girls on an allotment, telling them he was brushing spiders off them, has walked free from court – because jailing him was ‘unfair’ on his family. The victim’s family have blasted Judge Mark Lucraft for being ‘too lenient’ and ‘living in cuckoo land’ for handing Gary Karn a suspended sentence. The 48-year-old from Norwich was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault against a child under 13 following a three day trial, in which the seven and eight-year-olds had to give evidence. Karn inappropriately touched the girls as they picked raspberries from bushes at his allotment last September. He told them he was brushing spiders off them but was found out after one of the girl’s told their mother that he had put his hands down their trousers and up their tops. But rather than jailing him, Judge Lucraft suspended Karn’s 18-month sentence for two years and banned him from working with children for five years. He was also ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and was given a five-year sexual offences prevention order. Karn asked for six counts of possession of extreme pornography to be taken into consideration, arising from DVDs found at his house during a police search, and a single count of possession of indecent photographs of a child. Yet Judge Lucraft, who was sitting at Norwich Crown Court last week, said an immediate jail term would unfairly affect Karn’s family. He said: “I have to consider the impact on them: people who are not in any way at fault yet might suffer serious hardship from your actions.” It followed mitigation whereby Karn’s offences were described as ‘opportunistic’ by the defence. Jude Durr branded the incident as a ‘moment of madness’ and said a prison sentence would punish Karn’s family as much as him. “Imprisonment will almost certainly lead to him losing his job. If he loses his liberty and they lose their house, that would have pretty dev
Other great stories
POLAR BEAR STRETCHES
Raising his arms above his head and lying flat on his back, a polar bear stretches as he sprawls out across the ice .
CALIFORNIAN GHOST TOWN OF BODIE HILLS FROZEN IN TIME
An intrepid photographer travelled to the abandoned ghost town of Bodie in northern California to capture the historic buildings that are trapped in time .
WOMAN LOSES 8ST AFTER ENERGY DRINK HABIT NEARLY BLINDS HER
A diabetic who was addicted to energy drinks has lost 8st after doctors warned her habit was blinding her .
AMAZING 3D DRAWINGS
THIS may look like a dolphin through jumping hoops, but it is in fact nothing more than a clever 3D pencil drawing .
FROZEN WATERFALLS
COURAGEOUS CLIMBERS scale frozen waterfalls in Canada, as the ice threatens to collapse beneath them .
ROMANIAN CELEBRATES NEW JOB AS KNIFE THROWER'S ASSISTANT
A Romanian woman is celebrating her new job as a knife-thrower’s assistant after leaving her family behind to move to the UK .
CARE WORKER WHO BROKE SPINE IN ‘SHINING’ SEX ATTACK CALLS FOR TOUGHER SAFETY MEASURES
A care worker who broke her spine after jumping from a window to escape a sex attack at the hands of a resident has called for tougher safety measures to protect care staff .
HER ROYAL i-NESS - THERE'S AN APP TO STEAL KATE'S STYLE
Have you ever wanted to emulate the Duchess of Cambridge's style? Well, now there's an app for that .
TRAPPED IN THE BODY OF A 10 YR OLD: TEENAGE GIRL BORN WITHOUT HORMONES
She is about to start driving and soon will be able to legally buy alcohol and get married, but Poppy Webb-Jones still looks and thinks like a ten-year-old girl .
HOUSEWORK-OUT
STEPFORD wives from the 1950's and 60's are performing history's most sexist exercise programme .
FISH AND BIRD TANGO
A trout manages to escape the jaws of a hungry cormorant - only to find itself back inside the bird's long beak .
MONKEY BUSINESS
GETTING behind the camera, this monkey practices his photography skills on his friends .