A notice of appeal was filed Sept. 25, 2012 to challenge convicted sex offender and ex-TV reporter Ron Bencze's four-year sentence for abusing a boy between 2003 and 2010. (GLOBAL TV screencapture)

VANCOUVER - Convicted child-sex offender and former TV reporter Ron Bencze is appealing a four-year jail sentence for sexually assaulting a boy he babysat.

The application for appeal was filed Sept. 25. Appeal lawyer Eric Gottardi wrote Bencze’s sentence, handed down in late August, is “demonstrably unfit, or clearly falls outside of the acceptable range.”

His lawyer’s office did not release what kind of sentence reduction is sought, but outlined an additional five reasons for appeal, including that the judge didn’t give sufficient weight to the Crown’s suggestion for a sentence, which was two to three years jail.

The appeal lawyer also wrote the judge “erred in imposing an excessive and unjustifiably harsh 20-year (conditional) order,” which meant Bencze wouldn’t be allowed in places where children can be expected to be for two decades.

Defence had asked the judge during sentencing in August for a conditional sentence of 18 to 24 months.

The court had heard the assaults started in 2003 and ended in 2010, when the victim’s mother found sexually explicit text messages on her teenaged son’s cellphone.