Rapist not imprisoned

And at 18 he should know that. Another 13 year old might say that he did not know, but at 18 he is old enough to be aware that a girl of 13 is under the age of consent.

Sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old is rape in the eyes of the law, even if the girl was willing.

I think this is the lake of knowledge and we can not blame on him directly we have to now under what circumstances he rape the girl did she sexually attract the boy or first she fulfill her sexual desire and after that she claim for her rape.

JessM

I would like to add that the British Law, in my opinion, can be far too lenient on criminals compared to other countries and allow dangerious people to walk the streets.

ah right absent is that for boys too or just girls?

The age of consent varies from country to country. The lowest age – 12 – is in Vatican City.

In some cultures 13 year olds are not considered to be children. I wonder if that had anything to do with it?

Ducks behind sofa.

Regardless of his sentence, he has been convicted and, presumably, will go on the sex offenders' register so ignorance of the law was not a successful defence against conviction. (In fact, I doubt if any British barrister would even have bothered to try that one.) It appears to have been taken into account as a mitigating circumstance as, quite rightly, many specific situations often are.

He wasn't so innocent and protected. He had a computer, was on the internet, groomed the girl on-line, booked a hotel room and used a condom.

But again, I repeat, it is not the details of the crime and the circumstances that matter but I always understood that ignorance of the law is not a valid defence but in this case it seems the judge accepted that it could be. When did the law change? Will we now have criminals of all kinds pleading for leniency on the basis that there was some aspect of their crime that broke a low that they were ignorant of? Give a barrister a loop hole and he will soon make it into a chasm.

I'm still bothered about the school he went to, that instilled such appalling ideas into his ignorant head.

I've just read Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book 'Infidel', and as a Muslim immigrant into the West, she totally opposes such schools, and with good reason, obviously. Muslim schools teach submission and the utter control of women by their fathers, brothers and spouses. She knows what this feels like, and has put her life on the line fighting it.

Goodness me . I wonder how many extra prisons we would have to build if every 16-18 year old male that had sex with a 13-15 year old girl has a custodial sentence. 13-15 old girls are frequently sexually active (sadly) and 16-18 year old young men frequently immature, naive and some of them even have learning difficulties. If every such pairing led to a charge of rape it would fill every court in the land.
This does not mean that it is a "good thing" when this happens. In the school I used to work with the staff used to ensure that boys who came new into the sixth form had the issue explained to them forcibly. "do not look for a girlfriend amongst the under 16s - or you could end up with a police record as a sex offender". As well as trying to discourage risky behaviour by girls.
Neither do I believe that any kind of faith school is a good thing. This is not the way to build an integrated society. I worry that Gove is going to encourage more by allowing people to set up free schools.
Police and the judiciary have to exercise judgement and that is what the judge did. No re-trial by newspaper!
I wonder if the judge in this case thought that the young man in the dock would not have been there had he been white?
There are of course many cases where violent and manipulative rapists do not get punished. I think that would be a better use of police and court time.

Mey He hasn't "got off" but has been found guilty and given a non-custodial sentence. It is perfectly possible to commit a crime without realising it's a crime until you are arrested and charged. I agree that not knowing the age of consent does seem unlikely but people are always demonstrating unexpected ignorance.

This person was charged with Rape and so I do not understand how he got off by stating he did not know it was illegal to have sex with an under 16 year old.

I fully agree with *Flickertyb that ignorance of the law was not a valid defence in any court of law.

And what ever your religon, you should follow and be aware of the Law of what ever Land you have chosen to live in.

The worse thing is that this person has now not been punished for this crime and has been allowed to go free to maybe do the same to another person.

Something is very wrong I have an x-Bolivian-son-in-law that it does not seem to matter what sex offensives he commits he seems to get away with it.
I have reported him for Rape twice first time related to when my daughter was still with him so I didn't report it until after they split because of the trouble it might have caused for the family and fear of never seeing my daughter or grandchildren again.
The second time was just three months after I got the residence order for the children and he got staying access. I had the medical, gave the video evidence but he never got prosecuted because he claimed concentual his word against mine.
Since then he has gone on to sexually interfere with both his daughters. The oldest one told me in 2010 that her dad baths her differently to me and sticks his fingers up her bottom but she would not say anthing to a Police Officer so he did not get charged. The second randgdaughter has told a number of people about him sticking his fingers down there and making her sore including a teaching assistant, who called the Police in took a statement but didn't prosecute. Two Social Workers have been told and Police called back to another incident.
Professionals mucked Video questioning up by asking leading questions still not prosecuted.

It seems to me his religious background made him do it, and his religious background enabled him to avoid prison.

Something wrong here!

nightowl you're so right, and it's interesting to note that, whenever probation has to make cuts, senior managers target small teams like victim liaison, saying that their work should be absorbed by larger teams. There is always a fight to keep them - asking a probation officer to work with the offender and support their victim and family is nonsense, despite the best intentions of the PO to represent the victim perspective, but even experienced chief officers who chair protection panels conveniently forget the victim of the offence when money is getting scarce. The work of victim liaison staff might be under-resourced, but they do a vital job.

when that is reassuring and I accept that you know what you are talking about. I'm sure you're right that because this was a high profile case the panel will be particularly alert to the girl 's wellbeing. It's just that in my experience I know that the victim is often overlooked and I have seen a lot of damage caused to young girls at a crucial time in their development.

Allegedly he was imbued with an attitude at his Islamic school that women are as worthless as a discarded lolly. I think it is totally abhorrent that these sort of beliefs are fostered by SOME of the Muslim community as clearly they are importing their medieval beliefs to the UK. If he has been schooled over here he should be well aware of the age of consent and I'm not sure I buy into the belief that he didn't know.

There is usually more to these cases than meets the eye or is made public. But it is hard to see how he could not have known that it was illegal - but it is also important that sentencing both takes all the mitigating factors into acount, but sends a deterrent message, which this sentence will not do.

However, the difficulties of making judgements about these things when faced with a combination of girls looing older than they are and encouraged from all sides to behave in a sexually provocative manner, combined with teenage boys at their most lusty - a volatile combination that can lead to many misunderstandings, with sad consequences.

The quoted crime seems to be sex with a minor rather than rape as the girl was a willing partner - or perhaps others might put me right about that.

nightowl the girl will be offered support and counselling via the probation victim support worker, who will keep in touch with the family throughout the sentence. If more substantial counselling is needed, probation can liaise with the local psychology service via the multi-agency public protection panel.

Because this has been a high profile case, the panel will be on the alert about the girl's wellbeing due to media attention and unhelpful analysis of her behaviour.

The reports state that he was educated at an Islamic school in the UK which is presumably where he was taught that women are of no more worth than a lollipop. I hope the school will be investigated.

I am concerned about the effect of all this on the girl. The judge appears to have accepted that this man is 'immature' and 'lacking assertiveness' and his defence that he was 'tempted' by the girl. So he becomes a victim in need of support whereas the girl will now be left with this negative message about her own sexuality and no automatic follow up or support. I sometimes wonder whether attitudes to women have changed at all in the last 50 years.

Whenim is right. All we have to go on is a report which provides a few details of the case. We haven't heard the evidence, and more importantly, we don't have access to the detailed reports which will have been made by probation and / or medical professionals. It's possible that is he not UK born and has little or no education, or that he has learning difficulties. Who knows. On the face of it the sentence is extremely lenient but without access to all the facts I think it's difficult to take a view.

I can't comment on the case, but I think it's worth pointing out that a large section of society does not think sex outside of marriage is wrong, and it is very easy to 'pick this up' during one's formative years, so possibly whatever has been taught elsewhere is disregarded.

Several of you ask " surely they are taught that it is wrong to have sex outside marriage"
From what we have read about what went on in Rotherham and the trail now in Oxford, it seems to me that it is ok as long as the girls are white.