A judge in Queensland, Australia was so horrified by a video of a 44-year-old man raping a 2-year-old girl in Thailand that adjourned the case for a full three days.
Judge Leanne Clare watched footage of Jason Daron Mizner’s crimes as part of evidence shown to the Brisbane District Court.
“I think it would be best to put some distance between the viewing of that tape and the delivery of the judgment so that it does not overwhelm the sentence,” she said after the video, according to Metro.
The prosecution wants Mizner to be locked up for life for the more than 60 child abuse crimes against the toddler, from the early 2000s, including over 30 counts of rape and videotaping the attacks.
He had a relationship with the child’s mother, who found the child abuse images and videos Mizner kept while on vacation in Thailand.
After the woman confronted him, Mizner decided to stay in Thailand where he met another mother who also had a young girl he reportedly sexually abused.
He was arrested in Brisbane after serving 11 years of a 35-year sentence and being deported back to his home country.
Mizner’s lawyers want a shorter sentence after he claimed of being tortured by other inmates while incarcerated in Thailand for a separate sexual assault of another young child.
“He received beatings and other torture, partly in relation to [the Australian] offending,” his lawyer said. “The Australian Federal Police gave evidence at the [Thai] hearing about the Australian offending, so it’s not much of a stretch that inmates in Thailand would have known.”
They also argued that he suffered a brain injury after falling off a motorbike at the age of 21 which left him “uninhibited.”
Judge Clare said the 11 years of “torture” Mizner suffered was “an overstatement.”
This is the second time sentencing has been postponed after a doctor preparing a psychological report suffered a heart attack in September.
“Even a low risk of reoffending when it comes to raping babies is a substantial risk to deal with. When it’s a medium-to-high risk… it’s alarming,” Clare said.
