has provoked outrage among community groups.

Coalition for the Protection of Children and Women's Resource Centre spokesmen among others, slammed the sentence as inadequate in separate statements yesterday.

They said the decision by Senior Magistrate the Wor. William Francis to suspend the six-month prison sentence of a 74-year-old man who sexually assaulted his 9-year-old granddaughter in July, did not reflect the seriousness of the crime.

Before passing sentence on Tuesday, Mr. Francis said he took into consideration the man's age, confession and clean record although a court-ordered psychological report revealed the defendant thought the child enjoyed the experience.

"We are genuinely outraged at this non-custodial sentence,'' wrote Miss Toni Daniels, chairperson of the Women's Resource Centre. "If a confessed child molester is not sent to prison, who should be? "Is there a section of the law which presumes that over a certain age, defendants in criminal actions are outside the age of criminal responsibility? "The very deep betrayal of trust surely should also have been a factor toward handing down a much sterner sentence.'' Instead, Tuesday's sentencing was on a par with petty crimes such as repeat traffic violations, she claimed.

Co-chairmen of the Coalition for the Protection of Children, Mrs. Margaret Hern and Mrs. Sheelagh Cooper expressed similar outrage.

"It is abhorrent to us that a suspended sentence was handed down. (The defendant) has not even been required by the court to receive counselling.'' They noted that while the man was tried in Magistrates' Court, the maximum sentence in Supreme Court was 20 years and sexual abuse involving a young child and person in position of trust deserved a stiff sentence.

"It appears that both the perpetrator and the magistrate agree that no damage has been caused to this child. This view is both unenlightened and dangerous,'' they said.

"The legal framework for dealing with sexual offences is in place. It is the judiciary's responsibility to make it work.'' Former chairman of the Women's Advisory Council, Mrs. Kim Young also attacked the sentence.

"The sexual assault laws were amended to create harsher sentencing for people who are in positions of trust of young children. If a child can't trust her grandfather who can she trust? "This man obviously needs treatment and r incarceration to send out the correct message to the community that the laws of society are made to protect our children from perpetrators like him.'' But both the Coalition and the Women's Resource Centre praised the courage of the child's mother in bringing the case to the courts.

"We would like to recognise the courage of the family of the victim who upheld that child's right to be safe from further abuse. It will ultimately serve to better protect other children from this crime,'' wrote Mrs. Hern.

Last month a Police prosecutor told the court the defendant threw the child on his bed when she came to bid him good night. The man then pulled off her pyjamas and rubbed his penis against her vagina despite her requests to stop.

But the arrival of the child's grandmother put an end to the incident. The matter was reported to the Police by the child's mother and the man was arrested.