Furious Aboriginal leaders call for judge to step down Anger at claim that victim 'probably agreed' to sex
Barbara McMahon in Sydney The Guardian Tuesday December 11, 2007
A judge in Australia was facing calls to step down yesterday after she failed to jail nine males who admitted gang-raping a 10-year-old girl in an Aboriginal community in 2005, saying the victim "probably agreed" to have sex with them.
Sarah Bradley, a Cairns-based district court judge, gave suspended sentences and probation orders to three adults, aged 17 to 26, one of whom was a repeat sex offender, and six juveniles, aged 14 to 16.
The lenient sentencing was greeted with outrage and disbelief across Australia, which has been wrestling with the problem of child sex abuse in indigenous communities after a report, Little Children Are Sacred, earlier this year said the problem was widespread and endemic. Kevin Rudd, the new Labor prime minister, said he was "appalled and disgusted" by the details of the case. Queensland's attorney general, Kerry Shine, will appeal against the judge's decision. Indigenous leaders said it sent a terrible message to vulnerable girls and women living in fear in Australia's indigenous communities.
"If this was a white girl in white suburban Brisbane ... there's no way they would have walked out of court," said a child protection campaigner, Hetty Johnston.
Boni Robertson, an academic, called for the judge to step down while there was an inquiry. "It's undermined everything we have worked for over the last 10 years to get our women justice in this country," she said.
The assault happened in Aurukun on Cape York, which has a history of rioting and drunken violence. Some of the girl's attackers are said to be from prominent families in the area, while she comes from a less privileged background.
News of the sentences, handed out in October and early November, has already led to simmering tensions within the community. In a recent outbreak of violence, rival gangs fought with sticks and spears.
Bradley's handling of the case was revealed by the Australian newspaper. In passing sentence, she said that she accepted the girl involved "was not forced and ... probably agreed to have sex with all of you but you were taking advantage of a 10-year-old girl and she needs to be protected". The judge reminded the group of nine that it is an offence to have sex with a girl under the age of 16.
Facing allegations that Australia's justice system was failing children, the attorney general met with the director of public prosecutions, Leanne Clare, yesterday to review the case. "I am truly horrified by the circumstances of these offences," Shine said, adding that the law should be consistent in its application among indigenous and white communities.
The deputy opposition leader in Queensland, Mark McArdle, also called for an inquiry. "Children cannot give their consent," he said.
The state premier, Anna Bligh, said all sexual offences sentences arising out of Cape York during the past two years would be reviewed. "The nature of the sentences in this case are so far from community expectations I have to say I am alarmed, and I am not prepared to write this off as an unusual one-off case," she said.
Bligh added that the girl, who had been returned to the community after being put in foster care, was once more back in foster care, receiving medical and other treatment, and is reportedly doing well.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,,2225389,00.html
This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm