Man paid teens to inject drugs into penis

AAP December 01, 2009 2:49PM

THE Queensland attorney-general has sought a harsher sentence on appeal for a former sex educator for crimes he committed 20 years ago, after it emerged he reoffended by paying teenage boys to inject medication into his penis.

In November 2008, David Leslie Wharton, 68, a retired primary school teacher, sex educator and child carer, was sentenced to three years' prison, suspended after six months, after pleading guilty to crimes he committed 20 years previously.

At the time, the court heard that in 1988 and 1989, Wharton groomed a boy, 14, into stripping off and exercising for him.

In the Court of Appeal today, Director of Public Prosecutions Tony Moynihan SC, acting for the attorney-general, said Wharton had received leniency in 2008 because the judge believed he had not reoffended since the offence.

However, Mr Moynihan SC told the Brisbane court that in September 2009 Wharton pleaded guilty to numerous charges of indecent treatment of a child, relating to offences which occurred between December 2004 and July 2008.

These offences showed Wharton had not been rehabilitated and should be factored into his 2008 prison sentence, Mr Moynihan SC argued.

The court heard that between 2004 and 2008 Wharton took several teenage boys on camping trips and offered them money to inject erectile dysfunction medication directly into his penis.

The court heard the boys were offered alcohol to go on the camping trips and that he conducted child-sex offences "that weren't particularly invasive".

Because they were considered "lower end" offences, the sentencing judge ordered Wharton's prison term be suspended after 114 days, which was the time he had spent in pre-sentence custody.

In the court today, Mark Green, Wharton's legal aid lawyer, argued for the suspended sentence to remain the same, as Wharton's perceived rehabilitation was not the only mitigating factor during his 2008 sentencing.

He argued that since the offence 20 years ago, one of the victims had confronted Wharton and his wife and held them at gunpoint, before firing off a shot.

"There is also leniency given when an offender suffers some retribution at the hands of the victim," Mr Green said.

Mr Moynihan SC has requested the three-year head sentence be increased to five years, and be suspended after 18 months.

Wharton has already served a total of nine-and-a-half months for all offences, meaning Wharton would then have to serve a further eight-and-a-half months.

The Court of Appeal has reserved its decision.