Rape case ruling shocks Australia

[[R_H]]

From BBC

A judge's decision not to jail nine men guilty of raping a 10-year-old girl in an Aboriginal community has triggered outrage in Australia.

The offenders were either placed on probation or given suspended sentences for the 2005 rape in the Aurukun settlement, in northern Queensland.

In her ruling, Judge Sarah Bradley told them that the victim "probably agreed to have sex with all of you".

A review of sexual abuse sentences in Aboriginal Queensland has been ordered.

Sentencing seven of the accused in Cairns in October, Judge Bradley told them that the girl involved was not forced into sex, according to a report in The Australian newspaper.

She placed six of the offenders, who were minors at the time of the rape, on probation for 12 months, local media said.

The three other defendants were handed suspended six-month prison sentences.

Judge Bradley later defended her sentencing, telling The Australian that the sentences were "appropriate" because they were the penalties sought by the prosecution.

'No excuse'

But Australia's newly-elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has spoken out against the ruling, saying he was "appalled" by the verdict after it was revealed in the Australian press on Monday.

"I am horrified by cases like this, involving sexual violence against women and children. My attitude is one of zero tolerance," he told reporters in Queensland, his home state. Boni Robertson, an Aboriginal activist in Queensland, said there could be no excuse for the judge's decision.

"There is nothing culturally, there is nothing morally, there is nothing socially and there is definitely nothing legally that would ever allow this sort of decision to be made," she said.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has now announced a review of all sentences given over the last two years in the communities in the Cape York region where the case occurred.

"I am not prepared to just write this off as an unusual one-off case," she said.

"I want to satisfy myself that the people of Cape York, and the people who live in remote indigenous communities, are receiving the same level of justice as we can expect in any other community in Queensland."

The offenders came from some of the most powerful and prominent Aboriginal families in Cape York, while the victim's family had a lower status, The Australian reported.

The case comes six months after a high-profile inquiry into child sex abuse in remote northern Australia said it found problems in every Aborigine community visited by researchers.

That inquiry led to an intervention programme in the Northern Territory.

[DavidEC]

In her ruling, Judge Sarah Bradley told them that the victim "probably agreed to have sex with all of you".

She's ten years old.

Does this judge understand concept of 'the age of consent'?

[Zablorg]

Yeah, I heard of this yesterday. Fucking shocking. As if the poor girl would understand the implications of such a thing. I'm also very much skeptical of whether this girl even agreed.

[DavidEC]

Even if she came up to them out of the blue and calmly requested as much sex as possible, they're still scum.

[Adrian Laguna]

In her ruling, Judge Sarah Bradley told them that the victim "probably agreed to have sex with all of you".

She's ten years old.

Does this judge understand concept of 'the age of consent'?

The article says that six of the defendants were underage themselves. I'm wondering just how underage, though.


This is interesting, tough:
"Judge Bradley later defended her sentencing, telling The Australian that the sentences were appropriate because they were the penalties sought by the prosecution."

The light sentences was what the prosecution was pushing for.

[Bounty]

The article says that six of the defendants were underage themselves. I'm wondering just how underage, though.

16-odd years.

The text of the ruling was staggeringly retarded; she basically told the defendants they can't have sex with little children because then they might end up in court and get jailed - and that that knowledge should be a warning for them.

IIRC there are rumours that the case was rigged from the onset as the defendants were all members of influential local families - any truth to that?

[Big Orange]

IIRC there are rumours that the case was rigged from the onset as the defendants were all members of influential local families - any truth to that?

I imagine so, if some of the Aboriginese on their slum like reservation want to keep dirty "secrets" like this away from outside interference, although most of male offendents are little more than kids themselves, and you do wonder, especially when underaged sex like this frequenty occurs on council estates in Britain with 12 year old girls "going out" with 18+ year olds. But the court are PC mad, and the Australian government should do something.

[Patrick Degan]

Wouldn't have mattered if the girl consented or not. A ten-year old is not competent to give consent. It should have been an automatic statutory rape sentence if nothing else. That judge either should never have passed the bar or for some reason just didn't consider what happened to that girl a crime.

I hope the ruling gets set aside.

[Stark]

It's called hilariously broken 'cultural sensitivity' in 'Aboriginal communities', for which read 'ghettos, but in the middle of nowhere'. Their retarded tribal bullshit has a lot of pull out there due to touchy-feely administrators not wanting to culturally imperialise them or some shit.

[Warsie]

To put things in perspective.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22117625-2,00.html

[weemadando]

It's called hilariously broken 'cultural sensitivity' in 'Aboriginal communities', for which read 'ghettos, but in the middle of nowhere'. Their retarded tribal bullshit has a lot of pull out there due to touchy-feely administrators not wanting to culturally imperialise them or some shit.

It is one of the reasons I heartily support the intervention (besides toeing the company line). All of the cries of "we need to return these communities to being locally managed by their own community" has me going: "well we can fucking well see how that's been going."

[[R_H]]

Update

Appeal over Aborigine rape ruling

Senior Australian lawyers are appealing against a judge's decision to allow nine Aborigine males to walk free from court after admitting rape.

Queensland Attorney General Kerry Shine labelled the ruling unacceptable and "manifestly inadequate".

The nine males were given non-custodial sentences for raping a 10-year-old girl in an Aboriginal settlement in 2006.

The judge provoked widespread anger by commenting that the girl had "probably agreed to have sex" with the gang.

The attorney general said he did not see the relevance of Judge Sarah Bradley's comments, made during sentencing in Cairns in October.

"Any child under the age of 12 cannot legally give consent to sexual intercourse, so the relevance of the judge's remark mystifies me," he said.

System failure

Six juveniles were placed on probation after pleading guilty to the rape of the girl, in the settlement of Aurukun in northern Queensland. Three older men received suspended sentences, but none was sent to prison.

Australia's newly-elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he was horrified by the case and appalled at the judgement.

State officials have announced a review of all sex abuse verdicts in Aboriginal Queensland over the past two years.

Meanwhile, Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh confirmed reports that the girl was first sexually assaulted at Aurukun in 2002 by several juveniles. They were not charged.

Ms Bligh said the girl was placed into foster care after the incident but was returned to the settlement in April 2006, where she was gang-raped shortly after.

"The system clearly failed this little girl," said Ms Bligh. A welfare officer who took the decision to send the child back to Aurukun has been sacked and two others suspended.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

Well surprise surprise, this isn't the first time this had happened to the girl.

Ideally, throw the book at the kids, they're not fit for society, and do something drastic with the communities. 'Values' and 'traditions' that twisted do not deserve any sort of special protection.

[Resinence]

Well surprise surprise, this isn't the first time this had happened to the girl.

Ideally, throw the book at the kids, they're not fit for society, and do something drastic with the communities. 'Values' and 'traditions' that twisted do not deserve any sort of special protection.

People have been saying that for years now here, it's just that any one with the balls to mention that GHETTO'S are not worth protecting gets shit on, set fire to, and dumped into a lake by high and mighty media retards and the "Aboriginal Rights Movement" which is also known as "Give us money so that we can live in our hellholes, also we don't give a shit about Aboriginals that have successfully integrated into society, fucking traitors".

[Oni Koneko Damien]

People have been saying that for years now here, it's just that any one with the balls to mention that GHETTO'S are not worth protecting gets shit on, set fire to, and dumped into a lake by high and mighty media retards and the "Aboriginal Rights Movement" which is also known as "Give us money so that we can live in our hellholes, also we don't give a shit about Aboriginals that have successfully integrated into society, fucking traitors".

I swear there's some sort of archetype that crosses all racial boundaries for this kind of insular bullshit. Whether it's white, redneck xenophobes, drunken 'natives' demanding special rights on their own lands, Aboriginals, black 'gangstas' in inner-city ghettos or what have you, they all share the traits of xenophobia, clan-mentality, disdain for the law that everyone else follows, and an undeserved sense of special 'entitlement' that gives them carte-blanche to do whatever the fuck they want in the name of 'culture' or 'tradition'.

[Resinence]

I feel the need to point out that Australia has it's fair share of racist fuckface bogans (think chavs from britain, or white trash in america), so they do have valid concerns about racism. The problem is that the shitheads have succeeded in blurring the line between "valuable member of society suffering racism" and "omfg that white cracker told me to stop sniffing petrol all day and beating my wife, fucking racist". And hilariously the government helped create the gigantic sense of entitlement by refusing to apologize for the shit they did back in 60s and instead just threw money at them to make them shut up, and relaxed restrictions on "aboriginal communities", well that sure worked fucking well didn't it?

[weemadando]

I feel the need to point out that Australia has it's fair share of racist fuckface bogans (think chavs from britain, or white trash in america), so they do have valid concerns about racism. The problem is that the shitheads have succeeded in blurring the line between "valuable member of society suffering racism" and "omfg that white cracker told me to stop sniffing petrol all day and beating my wife, fucking racist". And hilariously the government helped create the gigantic sense of entitlement by refusing to apologize for the shit they did back in 60s and instead just threw money at them to make them shut up, and relaxed restrictions on "aboriginal communities", well that sure worked fucking well didn't it?

Lets not forget endorsing child rape as a part of their "culture", rampant alcoholism, multi-generational welfare dependence (not that this is limited to aboriginals, but they get their own special payments and privileges here), rejection of education and having god's own chip on their shoulder in many cases with anger against anyone who isn't aboriginal.