I can’t believe I live in a country where people in authority, people we’re supposed to respect, people who specialise in these legal areas are still so fucking ignorant about rape.
So you have this little girl in Australia (assessed as having an intellectual disability), who was gang raped at least twice by the time she was ten years old. Vile, vile, vile. But the world being as misogynist as it is somehow this little girl is seen as responsible for those rapes perpetrated on her by young men aged 17 to 26 years.
They revealed that during the case, Mr Carter described the incident – in which the girl contracted a sexually transmitted disease – as “consensual sex”.
“To the extent I can’t say it was consensual in the legal sense, but in the other – in the general sense, the non-legal sense – yes, it was,” Mr Carter told the court.
And then this.
“… they’re very naughty for doing what they’re doing but it’s really, in this case, it was a form of childish experimentation, rather than one child being prevailed upon by another,” he said.
” … children, females, have got to be – deserve – the same protection under the law in an Aboriginal or an indigenous community as they do in any other community,” Mr Carter said.
“But sometimes things happen in a small community when children get together.”
And from the judge on this case, Sarah Bradley.
The girl had “probably agreed” to have sex with the nine, Judge Bradley said during her sentencing remarks.
No, no, no! These are not children doing childish things. This is a ten year old girl. Ten, ten, ten. And these are young men perpetrating those rapes, not children. And. For. Crissakes. Ten. Year. Old. Children. Can’t. Give. Consent. For. Any. Kind. Of. Sex. When you find yourself as a crown prosecutor or a judge thinking otherwise then it is time to resign from your job for the safety of the people at your mercy. In fact when anyone finds themselves thinking a ten year old can give consent for sex it is time to resign from being a member of society, because you have lost it.
And judges of children’s courts should already know this but sexual abuse of children can lead them to act out sexually afterwards. Regardless, they are children, and it is a sign of abuse, not a sign of consent. And the people involved in these acts with those children are abusers. No ‘naughtiness’, no ‘experimentation’, no ‘childish behaviour’ – abusers. Because ten year old children can’t give consent for sex!
That little girl was first raped when she was only seven years old. That little girl probably behaves in a sexually precocious manner now. She might be easily led into opportunities for positive attention through sexual interactions. She likely doesn’t have very good judgement about people anymore. She is certainly unlikely to have much of a sense of self-worth, after all she is only 12 years old now and has reportedly already experienced suicidal moments. These are signs that whatever precious self preservation mechanisms she once had as a small child have been almost entirely destroyed by sexual abuse.
This should make the legal system more worried for her safety not less.
blue milk 
God – it is disgusting! The whole thing is disgusting, disgusting, disgusting. Hear hear to everything you said and you should copy it to the newspapers. WHAT do they think gang rape is – fun? She is a little girl. They are MEN. They are RAPISTS. The only good thing is that this kind of judgement has not gone unchallenged and will hopefully not be repeated.
I have no words for this. It’s so sad and horrifying and scary. That poor little girl. She was barely more than a baby. How could anyone ever thing she was even partially to blame? I don’t understand how anyone could be anything less than outraged by this.
I am speechless with fury – really. Just, just, just … Don’t we have legislatively determined ages of consent – they haven’t been dropped, have they? In addition to the social and gender issues surely this is a misstatement of law? And since when do we have a legal system in which consent is argued on the basis of ‘a general sense’ rather than a legal sense?
And race .. trying to swap this around, I can’t see that judgement being made if the child in question was Anglo. I wonder if it’s another example of the on-going sexualisation of Aboriginal girls and women, such as been evident throughout Aus. history, in combination with the old favourites, “boys will be boys” and “indigenous sexual assault isn’t as serious”.
What must it feel like to be that child?
Thanks for bringing this to my attention…just another thing for me to worry countless hours about…so scary.
Oh, and thanks for visiting my site. Peace!
Sickening that a girl this age could be thought of as being capable of consenting.
How does this happen?
How does one “agree” to live through something like this without it being agreement under duress? (which would thus moot the whole notion of agreement, surely?)
If I agree to you stealing my wallet while you hold a gun to my head, is that really consent?
Why are women/girls/children ALWAYS to blame?
On being assaulted by a cabbie a few years back, I was strong enough to go to court were I was dragged through the whole “yer a slut asking for it” thing.
That little girl would ask for sex with multiple partners the same way I would ask for some weirdo old Greek man to lick my face, grope my boob and clutch my crotch desperately with his hands in a car in broad daylight.
i really think that the gross sexualisation of children is going to be the next battle we have to fight as women, mothers and consumers.
i have a friend writing a book which touches on this (and ad-proofing kids). We recently had an article in our local rag in the inner west of sydney about how “Pole dancing is great exercise for kids. Just like monkey bars really.”
Well, lets let kids be kids and stop frigging around with phallic symbols then, eh? Can’t they just have monkey bars?
Oh god, I’m so sick of sex! Let kids be kids, let them play normal kid games, give them some freedom. Let sex be for grown ups.
sad cross worried.
Perhaps it is unfair of me, but I am doubly pissed that the judge is a woman. If we can’t protect each other, where do we go when we need help. Traitorous.
OMG. Under any circumstances this is revolting, but add to her age the fact that she is mentally impaired… I’m despondent.
The whole thing is absolutely disgusting and really brings home the point that we’re STILL not treating rapists with the scorn they deserve. Women (girls! Children!) are still being seen as ‘deserving’ it. It’s a sad, sad time we live in. 😦
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