APPEAL COURT JAILS CHILD ATTACKERS

The Queensland state Court of Appeal ordered the five, who pleaded guilty to the rape in a remote Aboriginal community in mid-2006, to serve prison sentences.

Nine people convicted in the attack - aged between 13 and 25 at the time of the rape - walked free from court when they were originally sentenced last year.

The leniency of the sentences originally handed down sparked nationwide outrage and raised questions about the standard of justice for Aboriginal communities in the remote north-east wilderness of Cape York.

Last year District Court Judge Sarah Bradley gave the three adults six-month suspended prison sentences. The six juveniles received a year's probation with no convictions recorded against them.

But appeal court president, Chief Justice Paul de Jersey, said that Judge Bradley had made serious errors in passing the sentences and disregarded court precedents.

"These errors were so serious as to produce a clear miscarriage of justice," he told the court.

The three adults were sentenced to six years in prison. They will be eligible for parole on June 13, 2010.

Two teenagers were sentenced to juvenile detention. One is to serve 18 months and the other a year. Four other teenagers who also pleaded guilty to the crime were given three years probation.

The state government lodged the appeal against the leniency of the sentences despite a government prosecutor arguing against jail terms during the original sentence hearings. That prosecutor has since resigned.