Sounds like a great recipe for creating thousands of professional employment opportunities. It won't lessen the incidence of pedophilia though - and might even lead to tacit encouragement, or at least to the discouraging of more effective sanctions, since there will be a large body of folk whose jobs depend on there being a goodly number of pedophiles to assess, rehabilitate, etc. Mind you, I don't know the answer, I just reckon this isn't it.

The author rules out transportation -- but why? There are plenty of uninhabited islands within Australian territorial waters where wrong-doers could be marooned with a container-load of farming supplies and enough food to get them through the first year. Segregate the genders, perhaps, to avoid producing children, and appoint a frigate to cruise around and intercept escapees -- the whole thing would probably work out a lot cheaper than the overcrowded and regimented prisons we currently maintain. An ideal solution, surely?

Jon j Transportation! It's already been tried, ever heard of Australia.

'Understandably, paedophilia excites public rage and condemnation; the violation of the innocent and the vulnerable, and the psychological damage which can tragically burden their lives.'

It does not necessarily follow that because there is public rage and condemnation that it is because of the harm being done to the innocent and vulnerable. There is a very common phenomenon in human behaviour called projection. Many of those who rage and condemn could well be projecting on to the paedophile the rage and condemnation belonging to a close relative. It is very hard to admit that you have been a victim of sexual abuse by someone close to you and for whom you may have great affection. The feelings associated with such abuse remain in the victim until they are accurately identified and appropriate blame is associated. In the meantime they often surface as rage against a more ‘distant’ perpetrator which is less disturbing but totally ineffective for the victim.

Similarly, people who are perpetrators of sexual abuse know unconsciously that their behaviour is very damaging. These perpetrators are often abusing their own children and the revulsion they feel for the paedophile can be an outpouring of what they unconsciously feel about their own behaviour. As well as perpetrators there are those who knowingly turn a blind eye to the sexual abuse in families because it threatens their own emotional security. These people can also project their guilt on to the ‘evil’ paedophile.

Governments who react towards hysteria associated with paedophiles are reacting in a very simplistic fashion and without regard for the complexities of human emotion. The raised level of hysteria does not necessarily mean that sexual abuse is a worse crime than any other crime. It may just mean that there is a lot more sexual abuse happening in society that has not been labelled as criminal.

Well in my opinion, the guy has been convicted of a crime and served his time.

Now if the sentance was insuficient for the crime, then there are plenty of avenues for which the authorities can have a sentance re-evaluated.

So in essence, 'the mob' should be protesting the law makers that make the laws, not the person who has served their time, as set by the law makers.

But then the media won't sell as amny papers, or have as many viewers will they!

I think a civil case should be brought against the media in the case of DF, as it is they who have fueled this outrage. No cameras, little interest.

Many people, myself included, had never heard of the guy before his release from prison and the media storm that followed.

What about the guy who held 'his own' daughter captive for 30 years and fathered several children to her. Why is he not being hounded or having his name splashed all over the place.

A hundred years ago in Australia, convicted kidnappers and child molesters like Dennis Ferguson would have been hung. There would be no scenes of so called vigilantes persecuting Ferguson, nor would the view that "he did the crime,he served his time and so he should be allowed back into the community" been heard. The community knew that one possible threat to the safety and well-being of its children had been removed.
The gradual removal of the death penalty for all crimes however has created serious problems for the administration of law relating to sexual crimes particularly those committed against children; " Paedophiles are usually long term, repeat offenders. They tend to engage in predictable sexual activity, and their past history is likely to be a good indicator of future behaviour." Aust Inst. of Criminology.
The target group for paedophiles is certainly much wider and much more personal than the groups targeted by murderers, armed robbers or crooked company executives. Hence the general and real concern of the community about the presence of convicted paedophiles (and rapists) amongst it.
I have no objections to the learned QC's call for more research into the causes of and possible treatments for paedophilia but until the findings of such research can result in ways to remove the risk of recidivism of convicted paedophiles then society has little choice than to keep them incarcerated.