Rapist of a child gets community sentence

Before she resigned, Sturgeon wanted yo give 16 year olds the vote! Just to get Independence. If Scotland want independence that badly then next time.e they're allowed a vote, then the "adults" can vote. Personally I think 18 is too young to vote and according to this new advice on prison sentences so is 21. I'm 70+ and I can never decide who to vote for. They all lie.

This does seem wrong. Unfortunately, it doesn't much matter what country you look at, rape is still not treated particularly seriously.

IMO rape should be treated much more serverely, as it is a crime that ruins the victim's life just as surely as any form of bodily harm does, or even attempted murder.

But reading the information in the BBC article, I find it unclear whether the judge could have given a prison sentence, as apparently the law now clearly states that offenders under 25 should not be given custodial sentences.

I don't agree with this line of thought for a crime such as rape, but the law is the law, and must be applied until such time as it has been repealed.

Irrespective of the age of the rapist at the time the crime was committed or reported, he apparently raped a child under the legal age of consent and should thus have been charged with that as well as with rape.

Caramme

volver3

If women do not stand up and make themselves heard we will be edged out, become of no consequence.

I can't stand this havering any more. It's paranoia.

You have a very skewed view of the world and how it works. I hope you recover quickly.

Well, the ‘not going to comment any more thing didn’t last long did it?
But, I am in awe of your absolute determination that you, and only you, are correct in your views.

"But you said you wouldn't comment!" 😭

katy1950

The snp and these judges need looking up

I don't think "looking up" people is allowed any more.

"Upskirting" they call it these days.

Elegran I don't quite understand why she repeatedly went again to Dalkeith Country Park, where she met him again and experienced the same attacks on "various occasion

I don’t know anything about the case other than what has appeared in the media, but it has been mentioned that the girl had “certain vulnerabilities”. Perhaps that would explain it.

It seems like a case of coercion, as often happens in child abuse cases.

Its possible that it was "statutory rape" ie it counts as rape because of the girl's age but she was a willing partner and he may not have been aware of her age.

The snp and these judges need looking up

Once again the perpetrator is valued more than the victim or so it seems.

volver3

^If women do not stand up and make themselves heard we will be edged out, become of no consequence.^

I can't stand this havering any more. It's paranoia.

You have a very skewed view of the world and how it works. I hope you recover quickly.

Well, the ‘not going to comment any more thing didn’t last long did it?
But, I am in awe of your absolute determination that you, and only you, are correct in your views.

I think that ( and I have to be honest and say I’m only going by something Rory Stewart mentioned on TRIP’s but it was a while back and I’m going from memory) is that the prison service is so underfunded and under such pressure that they have again become places where people go to learn to be criminals not places of rehabilitation. Having said that I’m afraid that a paedophile is a paedophile and there is, to my knowledge, no known cure. I would hope that this young man is, along with community service, having counselling of some kind but it wouldn’t surprise me if he wasn’t. I just hope that his community service doesn’t bring him into contact with children but I don’t hold out much hope for that either. The world has gone quite mad in many respects imo.

If women do not stand up and make themselves heard we will be edged out, become of no consequence.

I can't stand this havering any more. It's paranoia.

You have a very skewed view of the world and how it works. I hope you recover quickly.

volver3

No, I think the media have got it right, The sentence is overly lenient I believe, but since I know nobody who is part of the case nor do I have a hotline to the judge's reasoning, I won't comment further.

Prison should not be the first option for people under 25. That's the guidelines. It doesn't mean they are all "not mature enough to serve a prison sentence".

But we're right into it, aren't we? The SNP are misogynists and the whole world is out to get us girlies and Scotland is drowning in its own ordure. Somebody should take us in hand.

Its getting old, but everybody can continue howling at the moon if they like.

So you won’t comment further. Perhaps you shouldn’t have posted that horrendous comment in the first place.
If women do not stand up and make themselves heard we will be edged out, become of no consequence. But you are coming across as very angry so perhaps you have issues we are not aware of. If so, I hope you recover quickly.

I don’t pretend to know anything about the Scottish justice system, but I do know that a 17 year old who rapes a 13 year old several/many times deserves to be appropriately punished. And that would suggest a custodial sentence to me. I don’t hold out much hope for rehabilitation. A person who rapes a child is a paedophile and unfortunately they don’t tend to change.

This will be a final comment from me on this, unless someone comes along and tries to spread more misinformation.

So I won't be getting any help clarifying in what way I misunderstood volver's reference to he must have known

Oh well, it was ever thus.

This will be a final comment from me on this, unless someone comes along and tries to spread more misinformation

Final comment ?
Aye, right. .

I think, and I have barely come across you on GN, that you may be very defensive about Scotland. Very.

This will be a final comment from me on this, unless someone comes along and tries to spread more misinformation.

You may get to know me fancythat. I may be defensive about Scotland, I prefer to use the word "protective" when people who have no idea at all about Scotland tell us how badly its all going.

Sorry for the interruption.

I would hope that your version of justice, is indeed just.

Philosophical question: can there be different versions of justice that are all just? Or is that entering the realms of mere opinion?

[do not misinpterpret my use of 'mere'; I'm only using one of its meanings here]

MerylStreep

Elegran
You ask why etc. Fear, intimidation, threats ?

Perhaps. The whole issue of adolescent sex is a tangle of hormones, motives, media misrepresentations, unrealistic expectations, and conflicting reactions.

I say I'm not going to comment on something because I have no knowledge of it.

This apparently, is "arrogance".

Anyone can have an opinion.
Some are just more valid than others.

Arrogant as ever.

volver3

Rosie51

volver3

Rosie51

Volver "how he must have known" are you seriously saying that a 17 year old male would not know that raping a child of 13 is wrong and against the law?

Good lord, NO. That is not what I'm saying.

I do wish people would read what is written instead of adding their own interpretation to everything.

I did read what you'd written. What did you mean by "How he must have known", what don't you think he knew?

You may have read it, but it doesn't seem that you understood it.

Obviously I haven't understood. Perhaps you'd care to enlighten me what you meant?

Elegran
You ask why etc. Fear, intimidation, threats ?

I think, and I have barely come across you on GN, that you may be very defensive about Scotland. Very.
But that should have no bearing whatsoever on this case.

I think you do indeed think the sentence was lenient.

I would hope that your version of justice, is indeed just.

fancythat

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-60137866

volver3 - I may be the first consideration, but I would hope you dont think there are no further considerations to be had. And that there is no crime that should result in jail for someone under 25? Or do you?

Quote from the article you link to:

But it makes it clear that the full range of sentencing options will remain open to courts when sentencing a young person.

What do you think that I think?

volver3, I do believe that we should be doing a lot more to rehabilitate people. However, and this is purely my personal opinion, I do feel that where rape is concerned, it should carry some form of custodial sentence.
In this particular case, I'm pretty sure that an appeal will be made against the leniency of the sentence, so we will all have to wait and see what happens there.