A judge was left so shaken by a child rapist that she walked out of court to delay sentencing and remove emotion from the punishment she will hand out. Judge Leanne Clare watched footage of Jason Daron Mizner raping a two-year-old girl as part of her job to decide what jail term to hand down. However, after seeing the horrific footage she said: ‘I think it would be best to put some distance between the viewing of that tape and the delivery of the judgment so that it does not overwhelm the sentence.’
Prosecutors want Mizner, 44, to be jailed for life after outlining his 60 sex crimes against the toddler. He recorded himself carrying out more than 30 rapes against the child in the early 2000s after forming a relationship with her mother.
She then discovered child abuse images and videos that Mizner had made while he was on holiday in Thailand. When she confronted him he stayed in Thailand where he formed another relationship with a local woman who also had a young daughter who he sexually abused. He then served 11 years of a 35-year prison sentence before being deported to Brisbane where he was arrested upon his return.
His lawyers want his sentence to be shorter because of the ‘torture’ he claims he suffered after being jailed in Thailand for 11 years for sex offences against another young child. They also say that he suffered a brain injury when he fell off a motorbike when he was 21 leaving him ‘uninhibited’.
He was caught while on holiday in Thailand when the girl’s mother discovered child abuse images and videos that Mizner had made. His lawyer said: ‘He received beatings and other torture, partly in relation to the offending [in Australia]. ‘The Australian Federal Police gave evidence at the [Thai] hearing about the Australian offending, so it’s not much of a stretch that inmates in Thailand would have known.’ However, Justice Clare said that while he was subject to deprivation and abuse, to say he suffered 11 years of torture was ‘an overstatement’. This is the second delay to sentencing after a doctor preparing a psychological report suffered a heart attack. Justice Clare said: ‘Even a low risk of re-offending when it comes to raping babies is a substantial risk to deal with. When it’s a medium-to-high risk… it’s alarming.’
Metro