There was public outrage when a Marion County judge decided not to send a convicted child molester to prison, but experts have said that however controversial this may seem it is not uncommon. Jeremy Schwer a father-of-two from Indiana was spared prison time at the request of his estranged wife after pleading guilty to repeatedly molesting their daughter who was six years old at the time and stricken with cancer. But in this case the financial consequences to his family outweighed everything else. He sexually abused the child in hospital as she endured chemotherapy and radiation to fight a cancerous brain tumor. Indystar reports: “I am sickened how this young girl has been failed twice by our judicial system,” one IndyStar reader said. The girl was failed not only by her father, she said, but also by the court. Another said Schwer’s sentence, which includes 12 years of probation, sends the wrong message to child predators. But the judge’s decision was not all that uncommon, legal experts say, and it demonstrates the difficulties in sentencing someone when punishing the offender also could punish the victim. Friends and family members argued in letters to the judge that imprisonment of the [...]