Letters to the Editor
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Who is the victim?
Yes, but who is the victim? One of the letters above describes some of Judge Hall's cases.
Where the drunken female driver caused the death of her daughter. is the victim the daughter who was killed, the father who lost a daughter, or the seven-year-old surviving daughter who will lose a mother if she is locked up until kingdom come? Or the mother, who will have to live for ever with the memory of having caused the death of her own child? Is any one really served by locking the mother up for a long time simply so as to make an example of her pour encourager les autres?
Anyone who spends a lifetime working with the criminal and underclass elements of society realizes that apportioning blame and meting out punishment is a very inexact business. Judges have to look at the whole gestalt and not just get emotional about victims of crime, though the effect on victims should not be overlooked.
In the case that started this thread, it is no doubt true that this girls adventures on the day in question cannot have done her any good, but one would have to know a lot more about her to determine whether her life has been ruined because of what happened in that particular couple of hours.
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AKA Smith
In AKA Smith's opinion, having perused a number of cases, Judge Hall is not sympathetic to victims.
Take a look at this report
"The mother of a 26-year-old woman killed by a speeding driver forced the court hearing to be halted when her letter to the court left the judge in tears. Judge Julian Hall started to cry when Margaret Davidson's mother read an emotional tribute to her daughter in court in Banbury. He was forced to leave the court to regain his composure before returning to sentence the driver."
"Mum Elizabeth Davidson wrote a letter to the court in an attempt to put into words the trauma her family had suffered when daughter Margaret was killed. Margeret was driving home when her car was hit by 19-year-old Nolan Haworth who had overtaken a (truck) on the brow of a hill."
http://www.raisingkids.co.uk/todaysnews/news_130906_01.asp
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Surprised.
I'm surprised that so many men in this thread seem to identify with the perps in this case. Unless this child had a hormonal disorder, she did not have breasts or hips. You can paint up a child's face, but a child's body is a child's body.
It's a simple fact that men molest children at a staggeringly higher rate than women do. I think attention should be paid to each, in proportion to incidence. That would mean that - and I'm being generous - 80% of attention should be paid to male sex offenders, and 20% should be paid to female sex offenders. It's interesting, though, that men who seem to feel child molestation is a feminist issue wish equal time to be given to each, and in fact cannot wait to bring up the unusual existence of female sex offenders and demand that phenomenon be treated as one that is as pervasive as the existence of male sex offenders.
Finally, I'm revolted by people who speak of male children molested by adult females as being "lucky." Those people, for the record, are almost exclusively male. I've never heard a woman defend women who molested children as possibly simply being mistaken about their age, and the women who voice the revolting thought that women molesting boys is a case of a very fortunate boychild are parroting what they've heard men say.
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Not Surprised
What part about she looked much older than her age do you not get ? I read this to mean she did have boobs, what else could they possibly mean ? Although I don't identify with a guy who raped a 10 year old girl, I do identify and have experienced lusting after "girls" who looked and acted of a legal age, but were not. Lucky for me, I never acted on this lust, but I think most men understand how a man might get caught up in this. Just to be clear, a specific girl that I was attracted to, I thought was at least 18, ( i was 18 at the time) turned out to be 13. Scared the sheeot out of me.
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re: dikissam
I wore a bra starting when I was 8 and a b-cup by the time I was 10. No hormonal problems, the women in my family simply develop early.
I still don't believe that this guy thought the girl was 16. And in any case, he had sex with her once more or less voluntarily (she says her consent was 'somewhere in the middle'), then took her back to his place and raped her. However old or young she may have appeared to be, she was raped, which is a crime regardless of her age.
Thanks to whoever posted the list of the judge's previous judgments. It wouldn't have occurred to me that so many different cases ruled on by the same judge would have made the news. I don't know if this man is a pedophile, but he certainly sounds like a loose cannon - his judgments, in my opinion, vary from peculiar to insane. That he cried over a victim doesn't mean he can't be a pedophile. Pedophiles aren't actually demons; they have jobs, own pets, mow their yards on a regular basis, and have all the variation of personality that other humans do. That he thinks a new bicycle is an appropriate payment for a child's peace of mind says to me that whether or not he's a pedophile, he doesn't understand the gravity of the offense.
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dkissam
"Finally, I'm revolted by people who speak of male children molested by adult females as being "lucky." Those people, for the record, are almost exclusively male. I've never heard a woman defend women who molested children as possibly simply being mistaken about their age, and the women who voice the revolting thought that women molesting boys is a case of a very fortunate boychild are parroting what they've heard men say."
Of course, those women with opinions that are in favor of any revolting behavior must be "parroting what men say".
Perhaps your sexism and refusal to see a large, sickening problem in our society is a problem in its own right, and may be part of the reason it is swept under the rug. "Spotlight back on women and girls' please" - your attitude is part of reason enforcement of the law is so lax when it comes to molestation of boys.