Strong support for looking at longer sentences for child sexual abuse cases.

Both National Leader Christopher Luxon and Labour Leader Chris Hipkins have said they're open to exploring life sentences for child sex offenders at last night's Stuff Leaders' Debate.

Sexual harm prevention group, Stop Demand founder Denise Ritchie told Heather du Plessis-Allan that a crack down on sentences and parole times is needed.

She says in some cases, 10 year sentences are getting whittled down to two years, so victims barely have time to prepare for their offenders' release.

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