NEW SOUTH WALES (AUSTRALIA)
The Daily Telegraph
October 29, 2017
By Annabel Hennessy
A paedophile brother who admitted to raping and abusing schoolboys as young as nine has bizarrely been given taxpayer funding to appeal his sentence on the grounds of “good character” — even though his only evidence was a two-page letter he wrote himself.
Victim’s advocates are horrified after Michael Stanton, who last year pleaded guilty to 19 charges of historic child sex abuse, was given legal aid money to appeal his 23-year sentence on the grounds the original judge had failed to take into account his “good character”.
The appeal was knocked back by the Supreme Court last week after the only references Stanton could provide of his “good character” was “a two-page document prepared by the Applicant himself which was not otherwise supported or corroborated by any other person”.
The case comes one year after former NSW Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton launched a review into legal aid after an investigation by The Daily Telegraph revealed millions of dollars were being spent each year to bankroll appeals from rapists and serial killers who had pleaded guilty in the first place.
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