Teen boy avoids jail after rape of girl, 12

@DoreenonTill8 biology tells us that bodies will react in certain ways when certain stimulation is present and that's not always in someone's control. Which is why we don't use the outdated notion that it can't be rape if the woman orgasmed any more. Because its harmful, not biologically sound and incredibly damaging to sa survivors.

I take back what I said in my first post after reading the second article which someone else posted which had proper details.

Stupid thing to do to post the first article with no detail when there WERE other sources online with the full details of the case.

he was 13. We don't put people in prison for crimes the commit at 13

Well @Lavender14 an erect Penis to penetrate is required I thought. So are you saying they are forced to be sexually excited?

So in the example I gave, where a child is exploited and forced by an adult to rape another child - in your eyes that child is 100% accountable and is in no way a victim themselves?

Or where a child has grown up being repeatedly sexually abused and then goes on to sexually abuse another child due to trauma - they are in no way a victim in your mind? Baring in mind that we are talking about children, not adults?

Or where a boy with a learning disability is set up and is bullied into sa a girl and doesn't understand what's happening and where he's genuinely afraid of his peers? Is completely to blame and is in no way vulnerable himself?

Your world is much more black and white than mine if you can't see why the context is important in those scenarios. 'Reasons' of course aren't complete absolution - but they do need to be taken into account. Especially where the perpetrator is a minor.

I honestly can't believe the number of mn posters in defence of the rapist and all the 'Yeah but she....'

@CurlyhairedAssassin so he was part of a group who spiked her drink then raped her, but yes, definitely find ways to blame her
....

There are barely any details of the case here from just a quick glance at the article. He was 13, she was 12. It could have happened in all sorts of ways. There's nothing to say it was stranger rape, that this was some evil and sinister boy who attacked and innocent girl out on her own in the park. For all we know they COULD have been only months or even weeks apart in age and been boyfriend/girlfriend and happy together just snogging and heavy petting etc for a while until he wanted to go further and she didn't really want to but went along with it thinking that he might finish with her if she didn't. Maybe he even suggested to her that could happen. They might still have carried out being boyfriend and girlfriend for a while afterwards. But legally it was still rape because she was under 13 and who knows what emotions she might have gone through afterwards when realising that? I wonder if it was this scenario that that explains the strange vocabulary used towards the boy, that he was being "unkind" that day making her believe that he would finish with her if she didn't go along with it. I hope the judge made it clear that it's the legal situation that matters and emphasised that sex with a girl under the age of 13 is always rape.

I bet there are thousands of young women who have been through very similar in their early to mid teens. And i bet there are thousand of boys around the age of 13/14 who have absolutely no idea that sex with a girl under 13 is legally rape, no matter whether they see themselves as being in some kind of relationship. SRE/PHSE lessons do cover consent but I hope it's being taught properly.

But that just means you think that there are reasons for rape, and that's something I can never agree with.

I said there could be reasons but we won't know that from an article as a lot of background information doesn't get carried out of court. I have no idea of the particulars of this specific case, my point is that noone on here, unless they have been in the court room or knows all involved does.

And yes I do believe there are some circumstances where someone can be both a rapist and abused/exploited/vulnerable themselves. As stated above. I can't say that applies to this specific case but I also can't say that it doesn't because we aren't privy to those details.

No you haven't, unless you're saying there are reasons which you feel are acceptable for a 12 yo girl being raped then killing herself as we can't forget about the feelings of her rapist (poor lad).

If only all the time and money that has been, and is being, wasted on purchasing and implementing TQ+ ideology, and all the time and fundraising and brilliant brain power that has gone on, and is still going on, to correct the damage caused by TQ+ ideology, could have been spent on mental health services for young survivors of both sexes, and masses of proper education about consent and respect...

Not selfish, not kind. Absolutely call the boy out as a rapist. It very much sounds like his actions drove the poor victim to kill herself. He needs to be locked up to protect other girls until he's learned not to rape.

@DoreenonTill8 asking me the same question twice will only get you the same response. I feel I've adequately responded to this exact question already have I not?

@Lavender14 so you are saying a male can say #reasons for raping someone, and in fact poor chap he's the actual victim?

@UpsideLeft well all they have to say apparently is 'I've had a hard life' and it stops being about their crime and taa-daa! They're the victim, and the nasty girl just wasn't being nice enough, and she needs to learn to be kind to the poor rapist.

I think that sometimes life is not black and white and yes I do think there are some situations where someone can be both a rapist and in a way a victim themselves, perhaps they are vulnerable or exploited themselves. Unpopular opinion I'm sure, but it's something I see first hand working within the care system and youth justice systems, children end up in situations beyond what they are fully able to comprehend the consequences of and a lot of that tends to be down to how they were raised and things they've witnessed in formative years. I do think it's important to acknowledge someone's life history and the reasons behind any crime because that's what determines motive and level of culpability and also the likelihood of them repeating the crime or similar. When we're talking about children we need to recognise that their brain development isn't even complete at that stage, the part of the brain that processes consequences isn't fully matured until someone is in their 20s so you can imagine how immature the brain of a 13 year old is. These things do matter. An example, I've seen cases where a child has been forced to rape and abuse another younger child by an adult exploiting them. It's not always as black and white as you would like to think which is why background and context are important in making a fair decision. Also because if someone else is pulling strings in the background they need to be held fully accountable. It would be much easier to take a black and white approach to this, but it's not the real world unfortunately.

So what kind of fucked up precedent does this now set

Any bloody teen can now go around raping teenage girls and get away with it

Boy Kidlington vs girl kidlington

Just be kind in future, slapped wrist ( not even that tbf)

What is the work's coming to

So much for the Me too movement

That's now gone backwards again by 100 bloody years

His non sentence and being told he was not kind will have made all her peers think she was being over dramatic about it and possibly even lying

Basically she had to re live the trauma in court and for what

Poor girl her MH didn't stand a chance

Shame on you Judge Lamb

What an absolute disgrace

@Lavender14 so you think there are situations where its 'poor rapist, he's had a tough life, there's reasons he's raped her, she needs to acknowledge his life history and #bekind' ??

@MotherEarthisaTerf I think from pp the judge was female.
But like some pp a female who is desperate for the cool points for reminding us all 'poor him' etc etc....

It's not good language and I think the judge could have been stronger but I also work with a lot of young people who have been through the youth justice system and realistically the majority are coming from difficult backgrounds. We don't know the ins and outs of the case and for all we know this boy (because he was a 13 year old boy at the time) could have been vulnerable/exploited etc himself. Unfortunately it's not uncommon for children who have been sexually abused to abuse other children through trauma. None of that would be published in the papers so I don't think there's really enough to go on here to say its a fair decision or not. Horrific and awful experience for that wee girl to go through, but as others have said locking him up and throwing away the key for something he did as a 13 year old, if he's maybe been living life very differently since and maybe in light of life circumstances is probably not the best move either. I also have worked with a lot of victims of SA and I think you need to sometimes be prepared to read between the lines. Cases like this will never give you all the details so really you have to trust the judge who does have all the information. To be honest the judges language is making me wonder if the 16 year old is vulnerable. I've worked with a number of young lads who ended up committing SA without fully understanding the situation or the consequences who had a learning disability. (Obviously not an excuse in itself but in that case it was very pertinent).

I’ll ignore sentencing as I don’t know mitigated circs etc

but how the fuck is someone convicted of RAPE with a judge saying that wasn’t selfish? What the fuck was it then? FUCKING CHARITABLE RAPE?

And even if the judge had some sort of perverse point (because I know nothing about the crime) surely he wouldn’t say something so disgusting knowing with no context their remarks would sound this awful? It’s taunting victims.

that poor girl - rest in peace

This happens a lot, lot more than you hear about. Youth rape is vastly under-reported because local journalists don’t go to youth courts because they can’t name the perpetrators or the victims and literally nobody reads anonymous court stories so it’s very difficult to persuade an editor they’re worth covering.

I reported on one last year where a young teen was given a youth rehabilitation order for raping another young teen. It’s quite a normal sentence.

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK