An Australian Court of Appeal decided that the Christian pastor must spend more time in jail for sexually assaulting his son because his initial sentence was "manifestly inadequate."
A pastor known by pseudonym Irving Ware now faces more jail time after the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Court of Appeal found his sentence for the sexual assault of his son "manifestly inadequate." The pastor pleaded guilty of two counts of committing an act of indecency on a person below 16 years of age and maintaining a relationship with a minor in July 2021.
At the time, the pastor was sentenced to three years and two months in jail by Justice John Burns, ABC News Australia reported. The pastor was also ordered a non-parole period of 20 months. But an appeal filed last week increased the non-parole period to up to four years and 10 months.
The initial sentencing was appealed by the prosecution, which claimed that it was "manifestly inadequate." They argued that the 70 year old pastor should have been sentenced to prison for a longer time after the sexual assault of his son. Prosecutors claimed in their submissions that the maximum sentence for the charge of maintaining a sexual relationship with a minor was up to 25 years.
Three judges upheld the appeal, deciding that the pastor was the "victims' biological father and used his position to exercise control over the victim, taking advantage of the victim's love and trust." They also found that the crime was carried out in the victim's home, a place where the victim should have felt safe.
According to court documents, the pastor's family moved around Australia during his ministry before arriving in Canberra in 1996. In the four years that the family lived in the ACT, the pastor assaulted his son, who was at the time aged between 11 and 15.
The court documents also showed how the victim recounted two key incidents of abuse, one while the victim was in year six at primary school and another when he was in seventh grade in high school. The son also remembered repeated moments of assault that often occurred on a Saturday morning. For his actions, the pastor will remain in prison with an extended non-parole period of two years and six months.
Similarly in Hudson, Wisconsin, a forme youth pastor who volunteered at a Christian Reformed Church youth group was arraigned over sexual assault charges this month, the Baldwin Bulletin reported. The 36 year old Jacob D. Mygatt entered not guilty pleas on the charges that were filed in October 2021 by the St. Croix County District Attorney's Offic, which according to the Hudson Star-Observer said that he had "sexual contact with a child who had attained the age of sixteen, and is not the defendant's spouse, and with whom said defendant works or interacts through that occupation or volunteer position."
During the 2015-2016 school year, Mygatt served as a volunteer youth pastor, where he met the victim who he would then manipulate into having a sexual relationship with between June 2016 and May 2018. The victim's friend described the perpetrator as being "charismatic and able to use words very well to portray himself as a spiritual, religious-leading Army veteran."
In November 2019, the victim reported to the St. Croix County Sheriff's Office Special Services Division a history of sexual assaults at the hands of Mygatt, who now faces up to $10,000 in fines and six years in prison. If he is convicted for child enticement, he may face up to 25 years in prison and be fined with up to $100,000.
