The boy’s family appealed against the sentence straight after it was handed down. The victim’s family believed two months behind bars was too lenient,particularly as he had shown no remorse.
“This sentence sends entirely the wrong message,” the girl’s father said.
A spokesman for Speakman said:“A transcript[of the sentencing] has been ordered and the Attorney-General will be reviewing it as soon as possible.”
This girl was raped by a boy from her grade at school.Wolter Peeters
Last May,the boy – who cannot be named – was found guilty of six counts of sexual intercourse without consent,including three counts of penile penetration. He was also found guilty on one count of choking without permission.
The rape took place at a weekend party over two hours,after others left or had gone to sleep. Before it happened,the girl’s parents had raised concerns about the boy’s behaviour with the school. The victim against the NSW Department of Education.
The Children’s Court magistrate,Louise McManus,sentenced the boy on Thursday to nine months in jail,with a non-parole period of two months. She told the court he has not admitted to the rape,nor shown any contrition.
“In effect,in his evidence he placed responsibility for what occurred that night on her,” McManus said. “In my view,the young person took advantage of[her] both in her state and in her inexperience.
“The penile penetration was both when she was facing the young person,and when she was turned to face away. It was violating and humiliating,and the action showed little regard for her as a person.”
However,the boy’s lawyer appealed the sentence straight away,and he was released on bail. The hearing will be in October.
In her victim’s impact statement,at a sentencing hearing earlier this month,the girl said she had been left ashamed and irreversibly damaged. “I don’t know who I’ve become. I used to be so sure of what I was going to do with my life,and now I’m so very lost.”
A lawyer who is working with the family on a possible civil case,Michael Bradley from Marque Lawyers,said the attorney-general had no power to intervene in the case,which was run by the director of public prosecutions.
“The DPP will only appeal if they consider the sentence to be manifestly inadequate,” he said. “[For an attorney-general],it’s more a question of,‘is the law right? Are matters like this being appropriately dealt with by the system?’”
The girl’s father,who cannot be named to protect the girl’s identity,said his family wanted prosecutors to appeal the sentence. “Every day we still see our daughter,who’s still really damaged by this attack,” he said.
“In our case,a two-month jail sentence is not commensurate with the tough punishments the public expects to see for violent rapes of this kind.”
In response to this case,and a similar one also revealed by theHerald,Education Minister Sarah Mitchell in May ordered the NSW Department of Education to review international evidence for best practice in managing situations in which victims of crime attend the same school as their attackers.
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