Rape case ruling shocks Australia

[gagquin]

Rape case ruling shocks Australia

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 now spoken out against the

ruling, saying he was "appalled" by the verdict.

"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.

iNfo@

[irish]

The judge in that case is one Sarah Bradley, her decision is a perversion of justice. She can be contacted on : +61 7 -Snipped- (if phoning from outside Australia), just incase anyone wants to express their opinions to her or leave a message for her (as I did) Her postal address is: PO Box -Snipped-, Cairns, Qld, 4870, Australia

Edit (Zeus_Hunt) : Removed the telephone # and PO Box address. No personal Info to be posted.

[dock98]

that seems pretty outrageous seeing how the girl was only 10.how can she possibly consent?sounds like a traversy of justice to me and most others i am sure.

[myidisbb]

erase just because

please do not post personnel information.