Despite successfully appealing his sentence, a prolific paedophile coach will not be getting out of prison earlier than expected.
In fact, Stephen Leonard Mitchell will spend at least an extra year behind bars for his years of unrelenting child abuse and for lying to the government to further facilitate his offending.
On Thursday, the 58-year-old former police employee and public servant was handed a 14-year-and-nine-month jail term and a 10-year non-parole period.
It was the second time an ACT Supreme Court public gallery of victims and supporters heard Acting Chief Justice David Mossop sentence the predator for charges including three counts of persistant sexual abuse of a child.
But when he initially did so in May of last year, the judge unknowingly used the wrong maximum penalty to come to a 13-year-and-five-month prison term and nine-year non-parole period.
Earlier this week, the judicial officer admitted the "legal error" was his mistake and said criticism in the highly-publicised case should have been directed towards him.
Much of that criticism was in fact directed at the territory's prosecuting office for advice given to victims and at a piece of territory legislation said to not be working as intended for survivors of historical sexual abuse.
The resentencing proceedings were described as an "unrelenting, brutal nightmare of injustice" by one victim's mother.
'Too many cracks in our system'
Despite fears Mitchell's prison sentence would be reduced due to the error, Thursday's resentence almost matched the same terms handed down last year for the sexual abuse charges.
The additional time added onto the man's jail stint came as a result of him also admitting to, and being sentenced for, a charge of providing false or misleading information in relation to an application or maintainance of an Australian government security clearance.
The rolled up Commonwealth offence related to Mitchell lying in two separate interview processes, which gained him employment with the Australian Federal Police and Home Affairs.
The former of the two jobs gave him direct access to children and some of his victims.
One of those victims, Elizabeth Hall, described Thursday's outcome as a result of cumulated actions by Mitchell's many victims and their families.
"That these crimes were committed in the past, or that a decision error was made, are not the key reasons achieving justice has been so difficult," Ms Hall, who consented to being identified, said in a statement.
"This experience has shown us that there are still too many cracks in our systems, including our laws, that serious child sex offenders, spiders like Stephen Mitchell, are still able to crawl through."
'Clear then, remains clear now'
In resentencing Mitchell, Acting Chief Justice Mossop adopted most of the same findings he previously made about the case.
The agreed facts, the judge said, "remain as serious and confronting as they were on the earlier occasion".
Acting Chief Justice Mossop said his views on Mitchell's remorse were not altered by a newly played recording of the former coach repeatedly denying any wrongdoing to one of his victims on the day of his arrest.
That view, he said, was that any remorse expressed by Mitchell for damage done could not be disentangled from the regret he felt over the consequences that affected him.
The judge also cited updated impact statements read for the court, which noted the further difficulties victims faced following the appeal proceedings and the prospect of a reduced sentence.
"It was clear then and remains clear now," Acting Chief Justice Mossop said, that Mitchell's crimes have had a "long lasting and fundamental psychological effect on the victims".
Years of abuse
Earlier this week, ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Victoria Engel SC said Mitchell's claim he tried to shield the victims from his abuse "strains belief".
Disturbing agreed facts reveal countless sexual acts performed between 1994 and 2008 in the ACT, NSW and overseas at Mitchell's home and while he travelled and lodged with the children on competition trips.
Those court documents detail how the man took advantage of his position of power as a rock climbing and gymnastics coach, and PCYC youth activities coordinator to manipulate six victims and, in many cases, their families.
The court previously heard the man sexually abused one girl at least 100 times, during one period on a nightly basis.
He gave that victim a "Russian wedding ring" and took the then-12-year-old girl to a wedding as a guest.
Mitchell purchased a mobile phone for another victim and gave a third money to use a payphone so they could both contact him without their parents knowing.
He wrote to one victim's school so he couple regularly pick her up during or after classes for rock climbing training.
Mitchell will now be eligible for parole in May 2033.
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; Canberra Rape Crisis Centre 6247 2525; Bravehearts 1800 272 831; Blue Knot Foundation 1300 657 380.
