THE sister of a paedophile victim has hit out at judges who allowed the molester to walk free from court for a second time.
She said she had lost faith in the criminal justice system after a failed appeal court bid to impose a stricter sentence on 18-year-old Callum Witheridge.
Witheridge, formerly of Glyme Drive, Berinsfield, but now of Field Avenue, Blackbird Leys, Oxford, avoided jail in January after being convicted at Oxford Crown Court of molesting a girl and a boy.
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The case sparked controversy, prompting child protection groups and the victims' relatives to call for Witheridge to be locked up. But, last week, judges sitting at the Criminal Appeal Court, in London, backed Judge Julian Hall's decision to give Witheridge a three-year supervision order instead of putting him behind bars.
One of the victims' sisters, who cannot be named, said: "I was just really gutted. I have lost faith in the justice system. There is just no protection for the victims. He has got real grooming tendencies. He knew what he was doing - he was bribing them to keep quiet."
She said she believed the judges' comments that Witheridge needed a sentence which offered him treatment were a damning indictment of the justice system.
She said: "If the judges don't believe in our prison system and our rehabilitation system then there is obviously something wrong in this country. There is nothing for young paedophiles to go to - that is why they are walking the streets.
"Essentially he has robbed two children of their innocence. I am absolutely fuming."
Sir Igor Judge, sitting with Mr Justice Aikens and Mrs Justice Swift, dismissed the Attorney General's application to extend Witheridge's sentence.
He said: "We have to face the reality that these offences were committed by a 16-year-old whose childhood had been profoundly disturbed."
The judges added Witheridge needed a sentence which offered him treatment and ruled Judge Hall had been correct to give him a supervision order.
He was also put on the sex offenders' register for two-and-a-half years and was banned from contacting children on the phone or Internet for ten years, and told he could not be in the presence of a child without another adult.
Fiona Tarrant, a spokesman for Thames Valley Probation, said Witheridge's order required him to attend a sex offenders' treatment programme.
She said: "A three-year supervision order is not a soft or easy option. If he had gone to prison, he may well have done a sex offenders' treatment programme inside. If the sentence had been short, we may have had less time when he was on licence to complete that programme."
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "There are effective alternatives in terms of non-custodial penalties which actually have a better record in terms of preventing re-offending than short prison sentences."
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