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Saturday, October 15, 2005

Odgers SC: Gang Rapes "Unavoidable"

A violent gang rapist should have been given a lesser sentence partly because he was a "cultural time bomb" whose attacks were inevitable, as he had emigrated from a country with traditional views of women, his barrister has argued.

MSK, who, with his three Pakistani brothers, raped several girls at their Ashfield family home over six months in 2002, was affected by "cultural conditioning … in the context of intoxification", Stephen Odgers, SC, told the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday.

Traditional Muslim attitudes towards women? What about traditional Muslim attitudes towards alcohol?

MSK, 26, MAK, 25 and MMK, 19, are appealing against the severity of their sentences after they were found guilty of nine counts of aggravated sexual assault in company - a crime carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment - against two girls, aged 16 and 17, in July 2002.

MSK and MMK were jailed for 22 years, with a non-parole period of 16½ years, and 13 years, respectively, and MAK for 16 years (12 years non-parole).

Mr Odgers said "new evidence" showed MSK had a "mental disorder" at the time of the rapes and had stopped taking his medication - supplied by his father, a general practitioner.

He also said Justice Brian Sully had made a "clear error" in sentencing them to an extra six years on two counts, rather than one - referring to an act in which MMK withdrew his penis and took off the condom and then continued to rape one of the girls.

"It was the same victim, it occurred in the same location, there was no relevant difference in the nature of the act. The time gap between the offences was minimal," he said. Mr Odgers said a forensic psychologist, David Greenberg, had diagnosed MSK with "atypical compulsive obsessive disorder".

The latter submission simply beggars belief. Surely exposing the victim to the risk of sexually transmitted disease must aggravate the sentence; whether the withdrawal and removal of the condom is seen as a separate act of rape (and it is very strongly arguable that it is), or a factor tending to aggravation of the sentence. The report continues:

"The applicant was a cultural time bomb," Mr Odgers said. "It was almost inevitable that something like this would happen. His culpability is lessened because of that combination."

"Your Honour, my client couldn't help it. He's a Muslim, you see....". So much for treating Muslims as morally mature aldults, with a fully developed sense of right and wrong befitting one of the "world's great religions". Moreover:

The father, who said at the trials that he was with his sons on the night of the rapes, told the court he had diagnosed MSK with schizophrenia.
"He told me … Satan come to him and tell him different things. He told me that sometimes even the green grass whisper to him."

He refused to place his hand on the Koran when sworn in because he said he had not washed.

A spokesman for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Nicholas Cowdery, said he was unable to confirm whether the father would be charged with perjury over evidence he gave at the trials.

One of the most chilling aspects of these trials, apart, of course from the brutality of the crimes themselves, has been the wholesale retreat from moral responsibility and rush to blame everyone and everything but the perpetrators exhibited by the perpetrators and their supporters, and in particular, their parents. One might venture that this is a phenomenon familiar to those dealing with the victims of Middle Eastern "honour killings".

1 Comments:

Blogger airforcewife said...

I think this attitude of "victimization of the victimizer" is prevalent in the honor killings, but it is also a stand by of our current culture.

In the United States we had a case where a boy murdered a young kid and was given life in prison. He was let out - to the applause of such notaries as Oprah Winfry - and very quickly violated parole and threatened a pizza delivery man with a knife. http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/guestcolumns/2005/06/01/15601.html

The information that rape is wrong and illegal was readily available despite any upbringing MSK had. The problem is with people who don't want to admit there is a problem and who would rather apologize to the rapist than the victims of rape.

11:32 PM  

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