A Horsley man who sexually abused two vulnerable, disabled patients at Unanderra’s Marco Polo nursing home in 2010 and 2012 has had his jail sentence cut on appeal.
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Daniel Thomas Mooney was jailed for a minimum of seven years in Wollongong District Court in December 2013 after pleading guilty to two charges of aggravated sexual assault, with Judge Deborah Payne describing the abuse case as one of the worst she’d seen during her time on the bench.
However, on Monday, Court of Criminal Appeal judges Julie Ward, David Davies and Robert Shallcross Hulme ordered Mooney’s minimum sentence be reduced to six years, after finding Judge Payne had failed to give him an adequate discount for his confession.
The court heard both women were virtually bedridden and unable to communicate verbally due to their illnesses, leading Mooney to prey on them for his own sexual gratification.
He first struck in 2010, indecently assaulting a woman in her bed late one October evening while a colleague was conducting security checks in another building.
Almost two years later Mooney abused a second patient; a woman in her 80s suffering from physical and mental disabilities.
Senior managers were alerted to Mooney’s behaviour and suspended his employment before reporting the matter to police.
Mooney voluntarily attended the Lake Illawarra Police Station on November 13 for an interview but denied the assaults. He returned five days later and confessed.
The CCA found Judge Payne had not given Mooney adequate reward for this confession, having only reduced his sentence by 15 per cent. The judges said the discount should have been 20 per cent instead.
“The assistance given by the applicant was significant enough to entitle him to [a greater] discount,” they wrote in a judgement handed down in court on Monday.
With time served, Mooney will be eligible for parole in February 2019.