Austrailian rape case outrage.

[Leekbrookgull]

Judge Sarah Bradley has caused outrage in Austrailia,for failing to jail 9 men (6 of who were minors at the time) for the rape of an Aboriginal girl. The girl who was 10 at the time of the 2005 rape. The guilty men were given either probation or suspended sentences. More info @ BBC News.

 

[Mr Burns]

Did you know until recently, Aboriginals had the same rights as Fauna & Flora.

Seems things are moving forward:falmerspi

 

[surrey jim]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7136269.stm


Rape case ruling shocks Australia

Sexual abuse has been a noted problem in indigenous communities

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.

I am not prepared to just write this off as an unusual one-off case

Anna Bligh
Queensland Premier

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.

 

[Scotty Mac]

seems a strange decision

 

[Common as Mook]

How long until NSC's pond life denounce this as outrageous and barbaric?

Or will they not care as it doesn't involve Muslims......

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

The judge thought she prob had it coming to her being an abbo.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

The judge thought she prob had it coming to her being an asbo.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

In my experience of Australia, albeit minimal (4 months), the Aborigines were either ignored or treated extremely badly. They are seen as the underclass of society. I am not normally taken in by these short articles, when there is obviously a large amount of casework and other evidence, but for the new leader to condemn the sentence...?

 

[tedebear]

Problem is for the judge, as wrong as she got it (I think she did but there are some strange facts and hearsay) she could never actually get it right either. The historical treatment of our indigenous people has been dreadful in some circumstances. But if she'd locked em up for a long time, the native peoples would be screaming unjust sentence and discrimination because of heritage, but as she appears not to have then we see ourselves in a situation where people comment that rape of an indigenous girl is not a serious crime. Its a tough issue which I hope future generations of Australians will have grown in understanding and not the cynicism I find many of my parents and relatives have towards our native man.

There also seems to be little mention of the girls mental disabilities...which I find strange. Surely rape of someone of lesser mental ability should result in a far severer sentence....all very perplexing....it seems there are factors here which we (as reported by the press) haven't been privvy to.

 

[fatbadger]

How long until NSC's pond life denounce this as outrageous and barbaric?

Or will they not care as it doesn't involve Muslims......

I'm sorry, but no matter how hard I try, I really can't make sense of your post. Would you like to try again?

 

[withdeanwombat]

This is outrageous and/or barbaric.

Can we be sure they have not converted to Islam?

 

[Tooting Gull]

How long until NSC's pond life denounce this as outrageous and barbaric?

Or will they not care as it doesn't involve Muslims......

Chalk me up as another one who can't make head or tail of that post.

Why would you have to be pond life to denounce this as outrageous and barbaric? And what is 'this' - the crime, or the sentence?

 

[Shizuoka Dolphin]

Am I missing something? Six of these "men" were minors too at the time. Kids shag each other all the time. According to the judge, it seems clear that the sex was consensual in all cases.

That it's then plastered across the media as a child rape case says more about the morbid fascination the public has with these stories and the media's rabid desire to report all the gruesome details.

Total nothing story.

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

Not armed with the facts, I don't know.

I guess it might be down to the fact that Aussie Liberals have been crapping on about letting the indigenous population get on with things in the old ways for the last few years.

Perhaps the court knew that this sort of thing goes on all the time in the bush, and decided that if they jailed this lot, then a load of white lawyers would descend and jail half of the Aboribinal men in Oz.?

 

[BensGrandad]

My brother always has the same answers for Australians he says the country is lovely the people are lovely the only thing that spoils Australia is the whites that live there.

I dont know I have never been there.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

My brother always has the same answers for Australians he says the country is lovely the people are lovely the only thing that spoils Australia is the whites that live there.

I dont know I have never been there.

Well your brother sounds like a right knob then.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

This is what happens when left wing fuckwits get any kind of power in the legal system.

Child abuse in the aboriginal outback communities is running rampant.

Of course blame is always put back on the whites cause it's their fault a drunken dirty old aboriginal man digitally rapes a child.

We are living in 2007, it's time aboriginals grew the f*** up and realised it's up to them to get their shit together and get over this victim culture.

They use an invasion in 1788 as an excuse for everything, nothings ever their fault.

You'd think they were the most hard done by people in the world, except for the fact billions upon billions of dollars has been pumped into their problems only to be wasted by their own beaurocrats.

Iv'e seen first hand two lovely brand new homes provided for aboriginal families for free (something no white person would recieve) absolutely trashed within a few weeks of being handed over to them, floor boards ripped up, walls knocked out.

This whole don't say anything critical to them because it's offensive line of thought is absolute shit.

I feel sorry for the aboriginal women and kids mainly becuase so many of their men are f***ing drunken douchebags that hide behind their culture as an excuse to do what they do and get away with it.

Enough is enough, jail these fuckers for 20 years to make an example to ALL people this kind of shit is not on.

 

[Shizuoka Dolphin]

They use an invasion in 1788 as an excuse for everything, nothings ever their fault.

Not making excuses for their behaviour now, but to be totally fair, suppression and persecution for the 150 year after the invasion probably played a fairly big part in f***ing them up.

 

[bhaexpress]

I remember a few years ago when I was working for an Australian company (TNT) an Australian holding forth in the pub one evening about what was wrong with 'you poms'. Amongst our many faults was that we are racists. When I mentioned their treatment of Abos he referred to them as a bunch of lazy bastards not worthy of being called human.

Slightly amusing sidebar to this tale. He got fired for bitch slapping a woman in the office because they both fancied the same bloke ....

 

[Yorkie]

Am I missing something? Six of these "men" were minors too at the time. Kids shag each other all the time. According to the judge, it seems clear that the sex was consensual in all cases.

That it's then plastered across the media as a child rape case says more about the morbid fascination the public has with these stories and the media's rabid desire to report all the gruesome details.

Total nothing story.

If it is the same as this country's laws, then a girl under 12 makes it statutory rape whether or not she was consensual.