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MOLESTER GETS A BREAK
Australia, land of the caring court, brings you another example of judgely kindness:
A Samoan man who molested a young girl has been jailed for less than a year to protect him from the risk of deportation.
The 35-year-old Brisbane-based man, who cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity, pleaded guilty in the Brisbane District Court today to two counts of indecent dealing with a child under 12 ...
The man, a father of four himself, is on a permanent residency visa and if jailed for more than a year could have been deported.
To spare him this prospect, Judge Ian Wylie sentenced the man to 11 months and three weeks in jail, suspended after three months.
Judge Wylie has a history of interesting rulings. Meanwhile, in a less-generous court, Schapelle Corby’s original 20-year sentence—cut to 15 years on appeal—has been reinstated. And her half-brother today turned up in a Queensland court on drug charges.
UPDATE. Melville Cooke on crazy justice in Jamaica:
First, there is this bellowing of the name. The clerk of court speaks normally enough, ‘Mark Clemens’. Then the police person marshalling the line amplifies MARK CLEMENS! Hard on that comes the gut bellow of the police personnel by the door, MAARK CLEMMENS!!!. This is taken up by a third police person, MAAAAARKKKK CLEMMMMENNS!!!!!, then, finally, by a fourth, MAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRKKKKK CLLLEEEMMMENSSSS!!!!!, all in the space of about eight seconds.
A few years in jail and deportation works for me.
Deport the judge, too.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 01 19 at 07:49 AM • permalinkNo guys, you do the only reasonable thing, you get community services to arrange for the kiddy fiddler to be moved into the judges street.
Let his family deal with it for a while and let his neighbours thank him for keeping this guy in our country.
Posted by Harry Buttle on 2006 01 19 at 07:57 AM • permalinkAnyone want to ask the greens or democrats what they think of this ruling??
We had a bloke at Port Hedland detention centre spotted kiddy fiddling by a lady officer.
Despite all the authorities doing the right thing we couldnt even get the case to court. parents used the accusations to try and futher their claim, eg “we wont testify or lodge a complaint unless we are given a visa”.
Worst thing is I have no idea if the turd in question was deported or got a visa. He was one who wouldnt sign to return to his country of origin (Bangladesh or Packistan not sure). Just the type the “free te refugees” mob love.Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 01 19 at 08:12 AM • permalinkAnd why would the judge want to spare this thing deportation?
And why isn’t he named?
Posted by Mr. Bingley on 2006 01 19 at 09:03 AM • permalinkIsn’t there a convicted rapist currently touring with the South African cricket team?
I didn’t think Australia issued visas to individuals with convictions of that kind.
Posted by Flying Giraffe on 2006 01 19 at 09:30 AM • permalinko/t but delicious….
Fiery Ellen Fanning,ex ABC doyenne,icon of A.M. etc now fronting A Current Affair on 9-
Launched a BLISTERING attack on the N.S.W. police force tonight (she tore the spokesman apart with her bare hands).
Video footage of a backpacker being attacked by a group of men of MEA -was handed to the cops 5 weeks ago and sank without a trace.When police discovered that ACA were to show the footage they released the video themselves (an hour before, I think).Magnificent INVESTIGATIVE journalism and highly professional interviewing skill from Fanning.You will not see this passion and dedication to unmasking a coverup on public tv,UNFORTUNATELY.
Magic television Channel 9 and gutsy,powerful,adrenalin pumping viewing.Thank you.As a New Hampshireman, I must say I believe the judge referred to in 15 is from Vermont. As might be expected.
Posted by robert speirs on 2006 01 19 at 11:28 AM • permalinkYour judges, and ours, seem hell bent on releasing molestors in a show of “compassion”! When will this pernicious, sanctimonious ideology die!
I imagine their compassionate head and sentence tilts go over big in their blue state brethren. Vermont Judge
To spare him this prospect, Judge Ian Wylie sentenced the man to 11 months and three weeks in jail…
I’m not an expert in law, not even American, but this seems to me to fly in the face of proper jurisprudence. In the U.S at least, I think there would be extremely sound basis for an appeal here.
The problem is this: while the judge is free to sentence a person this much or that much, what the judge here seems to admit goes much further. He has deliberately disrespected some other law or ruling which would have, *should have* affected the convict.
I don’t know how to express this—as I’ve admitted I’m not a lawyer. But I’m confident that while it’s fine for a judge to consider the convict’s health and circumnstances etc when sentencing, it’s *not* ok for him to consider what *further* legal penalties would result from the most proximate case.
In effect, this judge has ruled twice here: once, in this (pathetic) sentencing, and twice, in skirting the deportation law.
That second ruling is a contempt of some other court or of the legislature. It’s simply not his province.
IMHO.
Posted by zeppenwolf on 2006 01 19 at 12:56 PM • permalink21. “, it’s *not* ok for him to consider what *further* legal penalties would result from the most proximate case.”
Well, I can’t speak for Qld, but for Commonwealth (Federal) offences the Crimes Act allows the Judge to take a number of things into account including s16(p):
“the probable effect that any sentence or order under consideration would have on any of the person’s family or dependants.”
The argument by the defence would be that the probable effect of a sentence beyond 12 months would cause the deportation of the father (actually it would probably just lead to lengthy appeals before protests etc).
Obviously, any possible appeal by the prosecution will turn on, what would the normal sentence have been? Some aboriginal leaders have received less time for rape and others (nullJackie Pascoe Jamilmira) around the 1 year mark so the overall sentence doesn’t seem that different from the average sentence. I certainly wouldn’t rule out an appeal though.
Sorry Tim but the reports of the cases you link to, with the possible exception of the glassing, seem to be about correct weight. The report does not specify whether the touching presumably of the vagina was through or under the clothing. In all the circumstances I would guess that the correct sentence would be 12 months on a plea. The sentence is a little light in that the suspension should have been after 4 months and not three, suspension after a third of the sentence being the norm for a plea of guilty on sentences five years and under.
This of course presumes that the report is accurate and I have never seen a report of any matter that I have appeared in that has not been cocked up in some material particular.
Posted by Just Another Bloody Lawyer on 2006 01 19 at 03:48 PM • permalinkIt should also be noted that from this report in the Courier-Mail that the Crown submitted that the appropriate range was from twelve months withn a partial suspension of the sentence. The facts appear to be more serious from this report but again it is hard to know whether the touching was through the clothing or not.
Posted by Just Another Bloody Lawyer on 2006 01 19 at 07:30 PM • permalinkIn fact, keeping the sentence under 12 months does NOT preclude deportation. The way s501 of the Migration Act works, a negative finding (which results in liability for deportation) can be made on grounds of general behaviour. True, it is simpler if there is a sentence of over 12 months, but it doesn’t have to be that way. So the carefully-crafted sentence of just under the 12 months does not mean that this guy is home free just yet. In fact he may yet get a “free” ticket home, courtesy of the taxpayer.
snark
Good reasoning but i doubt that it will happen. Remember it may affect his mental health by making him depressed.
And we wouldnt want a convicted kiddy fiddler becoming depressed because his bastardry has a consequence attached?
And its not that much simpler, just means that there is less preliminarys to be gone through.
Once theyre here were stuck with them!Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 01 20 at 12:14 AM • permalinkA 12 month sentence only makes them ‘eligible’ for deportation. Actually getting them deported is like winning the lotto for us in Law Enforcement. There is crook in detention centre at the moment who came from overseas and has racked up about 15 years of hard crime including joining an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang, drug trafficking, serious assaults etc… etc… When contacted the other day Immigration Dept stated that they were ‘considering’ his application to remain in Australia. For f*cks sake!
Kiddy fiddlers in Aug & Vermont getting a pass is bad enough, and then some, but Turkey has still topped y’all. I wish I knew how to spell “Mehmet Ali Adji,” but anyway, the Pope-shooter, that guy? He’s out of prison again, for no apparent reason. Last time he got out of a Turkish military prison, they at least went to the trouble of pretending he’d “escaped,” but apparently even that’s too much trouble any more.
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 01 20 at 12:30 PM • permalinkAug? Arg! Make that “... in Aus & Vermont ...” I wish I knew how to spell “P.I.M.F.” but like I say, it’s hard to see thru these damn fake-goat-eyes!
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 01 20 at 12:32 PM • permalinkAnyway, by the time I’d looked him up on Google, the asshole was back in jail again anyway. Man, ahmina leave the whole late-breaking-news thing to the pros, after this.
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 01 20 at 05:43 PM • permalink329 SDD did you ever find that lonely goatherd?
Continuing the Oz caring courts -Recently a man facing trial for attempted murder was granted bail after arguing that smoke in prisons was causing him life threatening heart attacks,a man who beat his wife slowly to death in front of his three teenage daughters could serve just over three years in jail(he also stuffed his wife’s mouth with tissue paper and stripped her naked.Having been beaten unconscious,she choked on her own vomit.)#31 The guy mentioned above took 3 days to beat his wife to death…
Meanwhile in Worcester in the U.K.,magistrates have let a teenage girl get away with refusing to wear a TAG because it offends her sense of fashion.
She was charged not with minor offenses but with grievous bodily harm and had already broken her curfew order conditions.The girl argued that it would force her to wear trousers and she preferred to wear skirts.
Also in U.K. James O’Donoghue was sentenced to seven years imprisonment(with remission only three and a half years) for an unprovoked attack so ferocious that his victim died of his injuries in hospital.
The 19 year old had downed 10 pints of lager before telling friends “watch this I’m going to beat up this old man”.
Yet judge Roberts bafflingly concluded that this thug-who initially lied to police to cover his tracks)- “had a lot of good in him” and had “learned a painful lesson the hard way”. (Hope the thug is adorable looking with big blue eyes and attractive to cell mates but he is more likely to be given a hero’s welcome in gaol).Meanwhile criminologists have accused Australian politicians of using community fears of terrorism as an election technique which makes communities less safe.Academics have condemned the Federal government for alarming the public.
Sydney criminlogist Murray Lee said “fear cn be used as a political tool to tap into people’s anxieties” at a public lecture at the Uni of Western Sydney, and he cited STRANGER DANGER and NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH as a way fear was being used to regulate our activities.“we’ve got to the stage where kids tend to be driven to school and we
ve stopped walking the streets at night. this means less people in public spaces.”
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Great, we get to keep the kiddy fiddler.
Doesn’t he get it? They are deported for a very good reason. The punishment comes first then you let immigration do their job.
F*@#, I didn’t study law, don’t even watch Law & Order, but this is obvious right?