Letters to the Editor
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I can have some sympathy...
... for men who get charged with statuatory rape because they had sex with a 16 or 17 year old who said they were 18. But 10? Unless she was an unusually developed 10 year old, she could dress any way she wanted and not look 16 to anybody who wanted to look. These guys wanted a Lolita, and they got one - and they should pay the consequences of their actions.
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Currently deciding whether to file an appeal?
What's to decide? This was a travesty of justice. It should be appealed. Furthermore, the judge needs to be asked to step down from the bench and forcibly retired if he declines. He clearly has some personal issues of his own to work out.
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I agree with jebldmm but from the other side of the age...
I will take the judge, et. al., at their word that the girl looked 16. (Though I have my suspicions.)
But the guy was 24. That would certainly be statutory rape over here.
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Darkly, I wonder...
...if the judge isn't identifying far too much with the defendant in these cases.
Also...
Sexual precocity is highly related to prior instances of sexual abuse. So we're going to punish this guy less because he abused someone who likely has been abused before?
For all our progress, we really do still live in the Dark Ages.
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You really want to be scared
Read the people defending the defendants in the letters section of Oxford Mail, saying she consented. A 10 year old?!
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What Goes Around
I wonder if the judge has a provocatively expensive car parked outside the courthouse, just begging to be stolen or vandalized. He probably also wears a provocatively expensive watch. I bet I could get it off his wrist without hurting him too much, if he's bright enough to hold still. His house, I fear, may also be so attractive that any reasonable person would be unable to resist the urge to "visit," through any window he's provocativly left open. Fresh air nothing, he opened it for strangers to get in and pay him a visit.
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She could have walked down the street buck nekkid...
...and he still should have gotten more than 4 months time.
She's 10 years old--it doesn't matter if she looks 16. It doesn't matter whether she's wearing Underoos or Victoria's Secret. It doesn't matter whether she dresses like she's older than she is, or dresses provactively. She's 10.
(BTW, several of my cousins could have passed for 16 at the age of 10. They were still 10, and once you talked to them for a few minutes, you'd realize that.)
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What About Bratz and Barbie?
Considering Bratz and Barbie teaming up to teach little girls to dress like twenty somethings going out to clubs, it's no fucking wonder a ten year old girl would dress like that. Her role models and society show her how to dress. A girl her age is supposed to imitate her elders and role models as she practices her societal role. We're sacrificing the integrity and just defense of victims of such heinous crimes that not only scar them emotionally, but physically as well, because we don't approve of the way we've allowed them to be educated?
And at ten, she wouldn't even have breasts, so there's no feigning ignorance of her pre-pubescence. Sex with a minor, consensual or not, is a horrible crime for very good reasons. We have laws for very good reasons, and there are no excuses for crossing such clear boundaries at the expense of others.
This is repulsive. That judge is as abhorrent as any child molester.
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she may have been unususally developed, I think that was the judges point
but even so it is a little hard to see how someone mistakes a 10 year old for an adult. Generally though until women are hormonally modified to make them much much hornier than they currently are, or men are modified to make them much less so (widespread use of antidepressants may have some potential in this area), men are not going to be willing to jeopardize the closing of the deal by introducing the mood killer of asking for ID, so there is likely to be an endless supply of "deviants" available to be used to make whatever points it is thought necessary to make.
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I don't get it
What does it really matter how old she was or how she dressed if she was still raped? Would it have made any difference if she was a conservatively dressed 18 year old, or a 5 year old in a swimming suit? It's still RAPE.
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It sound terrible...
It sounds terrible, it really does, but judges do not have an easy job.
BBC reports that doctors who examined the girl thought she was in her mid teens. The age of consent in the UK is 16, so saying she looked 16 means saying she looked legal. Girls from some ethic groups mature quicker than others, and tall, big girls can look much older than you would think.
As the girl was in the care of the local authority, there is a distinct possibility that she was displaying delinquent behavior prior to these events. In any case she was apparently a willing participant and for all we know may have solicited the sex in exchange for cash or drugs.
When I worked on Juvenile Justice (in the U.S.) we had female youth under 16 who gave histories of dozens or scores of adult sex partners, usually in exchange for drugs, but I never knew of a case in which a sexual partner had been prosecuted.
This case has been referred to the Attorney General in the UK for consideration as to whether the sentence is adequate. The guy has already spent many months locked up. Maybe he ought to get more time, but is he a danger to the public? Is he likely to do it again?
Who would be a judge?
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becasue if an adult consents it isn't rape
everyone is assuming that the issue of consent is entirely settled in this case.
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Anyone get the impression...
That this information is being presented to us by Broadsheet's sources in a slanted, dishonest, propagandistic way?
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age of consent
The age of consent in practically every American jurisdiction is 16, and in a few jurisdictions even younger.
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Emotional Propaganda
It's clear for the judge, and apparently others, that the girl looked to be of an age of consent. Her statement on whether she gave consent was....like in the middle !? Once again, this is not nearly as outrageous as our Broadsheet friends would like us all to think. More woman good, man bad propaganda.