It's their fault - the street urchins in Indonesia.
AN Indonesian court has cut three years off a jail term handed to an Australian teacher who sexually abused street kids, ruling the crimes were "not entirely" his fault.Smith spent four years in a Northern Territory jail in the 1990s, under the name of Ellis David Eyre, for sexually abusing Aboriginal children.
Peter William Smith, 48, was originally sentenced to 10 years in jail after he was found guilty of paying teenage boys as little as $5 each for sexual acts, which he also filmed.
Smith, who committed the crimes at his home between 2003 and 2006, was a teacher at the Australian Government-funded Indonesia Australia Language Foundation in Jakarta at the time.
Indonesia's High Court, which heard his appeal, ruled his original 10-year term was excessive despite judges in his original trial noting he had committed similar offences in Australia, India and Pakistan.
The High Court judges said the abuse was not entirely Smith's fault, and some of the blame rested with the street urchins who lingered at his South Jakarta home.
"The High Court considered the District Court verdict has been precise and correct and was based on well and correct considerations except on the term of jail … it is too harsh," the judges said in a written ruling. "The sentence given to Smith needs to be reduced because the crime was not entirely caused by [the] defendant's mistake, but also because the presence of the victims in his house wanting to get money from him."
