Australian child rapists go scot free

CANBERRA – Australia’s new government has begun talks on an apology to Aborigines for past injustices amid an outcry over the gang rape of a 10-year-old girl in a remote indigenous community in which her attackers escaped jail.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin met with Aboriginal elders late on Tuesday in a meeting clouded by the decision of a judge in Queensland state not to impose jail terms on nine men who pleaded guilty to the girl’s rape last year. The legal system had ‘clearly failed’ the little girl, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said, after the prosecutor in the trial described the attack as ‘naughty’ and ‘a form of childish experimentation’ involving a willing participant.”As the premier of Queensland and a mother I am frankly appalled that any child could experience such a traumatic crime and then, having experienced that crime, to have the courts provide a sentence which I think is so far from community standards,” Bligh told local radio yesterday.The ruling sparked public outrage at a time when Australians have been soul-searching over Aboriginal welfare after the former conservative government sent troops into indigenous townships in the Northern Territory to end child sexual abuse and alcoholism.New centre-left Labour Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he was ‘disgusted and appalled’ by the case as his government moved to accelerate talks on racial reconciliation.Queensland legal officials launched an appeal against District Court Judge Sarah Bradley’s decision not to hand down jail terms over the girl’s rape in Aurukun township on northern Cape York in 2006.State prosecutor Steve Carter was stood down on Tuesday night pending an investigation, while Bligh ordered a review of 64 sexual assault cases over the past two years on the Cape, where small indigenous communities nestle amid rainforest and farms.The judge found the 10-year-old girl ‘probably agreed’ to have sex with the males after a troubled past in which she had been sexually abused at age 7 before being removed and later returned to live in the community.Six of the perpetrators were sentenced to 12-month probation orders, with no convictions recorded.Three others aged 17, 18 and 26 were given suspended sentences.Nampa-ReutersThe legal system had ‘clearly failed’ the little girl, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said, after the prosecutor in the trial described the attack as ‘naughty’ and ‘a form of childish experimentation’ involving a willing participant.”As the premier of Queensland and a mother I am frankly appalled that any child could experience such a traumatic crime and then, having experienced that crime, to have the courts provide a sentence which I think is so far from community standards,” Bligh told local radio yesterday.The ruling sparked public outrage at a time when Australians have been soul-searching over Aboriginal welfare after the former conservative government sent troops into indigenous townships in the Northern Territory to end child sexual abuse and alcoholism.New centre-left Labour Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he was ‘disgusted and appalled’ by the case as his government moved to accelerate talks on racial reconciliation.Queensland legal officials launched an appeal against District Court Judge Sarah Bradley’s decision not to hand down jail terms over the girl’s rape in Aurukun township on northern Cape York in 2006.State prosecutor Steve Carter was stood down on Tuesday night pending an investigation, while Bligh ordered a review of 64 sexual assault cases over the past two years on the Cape, where small indigenous communities nestle amid rainforest and farms.The judge found the 10-year-old girl ‘probably agreed’ to have sex with the males after a troubled past in which she had been sexually abused at age 7 before being removed and later returned to live in the community.Six of the perpetrators were sentenced to 12-month probation orders, with no convictions recorded.Three others aged 17, 18 and 26 were given suspended sentences.Nampa-Reuters