FRANKIE DeGROOT | Local News | Contact
Australia’s single mothers have applauded Betoota Local Court Judge Colin DeBois, who this week handed down an unusual sentence for notoriously flaky dad Darren Leer.
Father of 4 Leer, who owes tens of thousands of dollars in Child Support payments and hasn’t seen any of his kids in months, appeared shocked when he was sentenced to 6 months of installing child car seats at a local baby store, DeBois Baby Kingdom.
The mother of one of Leer’s children, Leah, 23, said she was satisfied that justice had been done.
“Suck shit” she said, on her way out of the hearing “those stupid things are a prick to get in properly. Hell, that was what he was trying to do just before he said fuck this shit and left me and the kids forever.”
However, Leer’s lawyer claims the sentence is too harsh and could be a violation of Leer’s basic human rights.
“This is manifestly excessive” he fumed on the courthouse steps after the hearing.
“My client may be a useless deadbeat who has never provided for his children or made any attempt to support or even maintain contact with them, but this punishment is wildly disproportionate to his many, many transgressions. All those seat straps are really hard to adjust, and there’s that hook thing that is almost impossible to hook, or unhook. Or both. And then when you think you finally got it fitted and it wobbles all over the place.”
“You can’t subject someone to that for 6 months. We feel this sentence is a clear violation of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which is contained in Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Australia is a signatory. Obviously we will be appealing, with a view to having the sentence downgraded to 6 months of solitary confinement”.
