Australia: Just eight weeks for child sex abuse

A disgraced Local Government chief who sexually abused an eight-year-old boy as his parents slept in the next bedroom will spend just eight weeks behind bars. Retired Warwick Shire Council CEO Noel Francis Kropp used the offer of a bedtime back and tummy rub to lure the youngster into his bed twice during a family holiday at his Bribie Island home in June 2005. The 60-year-old Rotary Club member and ex-military man would then fondle the boy's genitals before telling him to keep it ''a secret''.

The abuse was not uncovered until the family returned home from the holiday the following month, when the child cryptically told his mother: ''Kroppy's like Michael Jackson...he likes little boys." Kropp denied the allegations throughout his four-day trial, arguing the boy was a liar and a bully and had concocted the story after hearing about the fallen pop idol on the television news. He was found guilty last Friday of two counts of indecent treatment of the boy but was acquitted of a third count after the child claimed he had "tricked" Kropp into leaving him alone by telling him he had a stomach ache.

The usually dapper Kropp appeared unshaven and disheveled at a sentencing hearing at Brisbane's District Court today, where he was handed a nine-month jail term, to be suspended after he has served two months. His defence barrister, Peter Callaghan SC, had earlier appealed for mercy for his client on the grounds that Kropp had an unblemished record and that the offences had occurred in a short period of time, namely on two consecutive nights of the three-night trip. ''Twenty-four hours is a short time in the life of a man, especially a man who has been as industrious and productive as Mr Kropp,'' Mr Callaghan said. ‘‘It was an opportunistic response to a defined set of circumstances which is unlikely to reoccur.''

During the trial, the court heard the boy’s parents, who had known Kropp for 30 years, had allowed their son to share the older man's bedroom because of limited space at his Bribie Island unit. Unknown to them, however, Kropp was asking the child to stay awake and wait for him after he was put to bed for the night. ''I didn't tell anyone because I felt sick and disgusting," the boy, now 10, said in his testimony. "I thought he was going to tell me a bedtime story or something.''

In a victim impact statement, the child's mother said her son's behaviour had changed after the abuse. ''I feel totally disgusted and betrayed by what happened,'' the woman wrote. ''We invited him into our home.''

But in sentencing Kropp, Judge Hugh Botting said there was "scant" evidence to suggest the boy had suffered significant trauma as a result of Kropp's actions. "He's a lad who was able... in a number of ways, to look after himself," Judge Botting said. "I think it is also fair to say that (the offending) is at the low end." The judge was also swayed by a bundle of testimonials and character references tendered to the court in support of Kropp, as well as a psychologist's report which referred to the disturbing effects of his military service. Kropp, who served in both the Australian army and navy, was involved in the 1964 HMAS Voyager disaster, which killed 82 people in one of the country's worst peacetime tragedies. "It's clear that you have served your country for 10 years," the judge told him. "You have also served your community at large for many years working in Local Government. "(Your) contribution has been admired and respected."

Kropp was the CEO of South Melbourne Council before moving to Queensland in 1996. He retired from Warwick Shire in 2004. Kropp risks having the remainder of his nine month term activated if he reoffends within two years of his release in October.

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