Two men in Luton who raped an 11-year-old girl have been sentenced to just 40 months despite guidelines recommending a sentence between 8 – 13 years for those convicted of raping a child. The reason for this lenient sentence was the judge’s assertion that the girl looked older than her age. He also claimed that she was a “willing” participant in her own rape.
Roshane Channer and Ruben Monteiro attacked the girl and even filmed the ordeal. In this situation, a young girl being approached by two adult men is very likely to face emotional manipulation, intimidation and to be coerced. Even if a minor wishes to be or is sexually active, that does not excuse an adult’s abuse or exploitation. A child, no matter how knowledgeable they believe themselves to be in such matters, will not have the emotional maturity, confidence or judgement to fully consent.
Judge David Farrell QC excused the rapists by focusing and proportioning blame onto the child. Victim-blaming in rape cases is sadly pervasive in our culture so it is therefore important that those with judicial power understand the severity of rape, especially when the victim is a minor. No matter what age she looked, no matter how “willing” she appeared, she was still a child in a vulnerable position. The law that was supposed to protect her has failed her. Please sign and show your support.
“Despite her age it is accepted that she was a willing participant, but the law is there to protect young girls from this type of behaviour and […] from themselves.” – Judge David Farrell, suggesting a child can simultaneously be a rape victim and a willing participant.
Sign the Change.org petition here
Recent Comments
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
What this says to me is that the visual imagery of porn asserts a stronger influence over men than law, integrity, and everything else. Once they see a girl or woman sexually – regardless of rape or age or any other factor – they cast her in the role of She Want It Whore just like the thousands of other she-wants-it whores the pornographers have put in front of their eyes since they were boys.
Director Brian De Palma said he believed Vanessa Williams when she said the infamous Penthouse photos of her were intended for private use only. Then he saw the pictures. Then he said she was a lying whore.
The role of a High Court Judge is to oversee court proceedings not to engage in personal beliefs concerning as to whether or not a female child is supposedly ‘partially responsible for having supposedly caused two convicted male rapists to rape her.’
Conveniently forgotten is the criminal law is not concerned about apportioning blame – rather its sole role is to enact the legal system. This means the criminal court system is solely concerned with proving beyond reasonable doubt (male defined ‘reasonable doubt of course since only men are the ones supposedly gifted with defining the truth) whether or not a defendant is guilty of the crime/crimes levied against him. The criminal justice system does not routinely engage in trying to apportion blame to the victim in order to minimalise/deny a crime has occurred – unless of course the defendant is male/victim female and the male has been charged with a crime committed against the female because of her sex. Meaning a male has been charged with raping a female or a male has been charged with subjecting a female/females to serial male sexual violence.
Then the misogynistic criminal justice system immediately attempts to minimalise/trivialise the crime male defendant committed/claim the female victim was supposedly responsible because she did not prevent male from committing violence against her etc. etc.
Ergo the criminal justice was created by men for the benefit of men and to protect men from male criminals and women when these laws were created were not viewed by male law givers as human and this situation continues still. That is why women-hating Judge David Farrell attempted to blame the 11 year old female victim because Farrell did not believe two adult males committed group rape and subjected this 11 year old girl to horrific/normal male sexual violence.
Question why can’t I make the claim ‘but judge the male victim offered to give me his money/car and it is irrelevant male victim was so drunk he couldn’t stand. After all he gave me his money/car so therefore I am not guilty of any crime!’