Marcus Fakana sentenced to a year in prison

[Zippedydodah]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles]]]]
I cannot believe that this lad is going to spend a year in prison- yes, I know that’s the law there, he should have known better etc, etc
I hope that the girl’s mother is ashamed of her actions.
I don’t want to think what the impact will be on Marcus 😥

Indeed.

That’s cute you think I care one iota what you think of me - you’ve gone so far as to resurrect a username from 2022 to post this, so clearly you have an agenda. And aren’t very bright.

Happy new year!

100% agree with this.

I thought sock puppeting was one poster name changing on the same thread? AFAIK that can't happen now. It is possible to have more than one user name on different threads, which I think is reasonable, if you want to discuss a health or personal issue but not have it linked to your rant about your employer, for example.

It is possible to have more than one MN account, though @endofthelinefinally

I didn't know that! Gosh, that must be difficult to manage.

Well, I think it is possible. Haven't tried it myself!

Sorry I should have known it was Lammy. Was hoping we could involve someone more helpful.

Sock-puppeting is as you say much more difficult now but seemingly not impossible - saw someone get caught out on another thread recently who admitted that's what they'd done

Hopefully there's some quiet behind the scenes diplomacy going on which we don't know about - someone earlier mentioned possibilty of amnesties during Ramadan [February] so fingers-crossed

Rubbish . I doubt he knew the law and therefore did not make an active decision to break the law.
He is a boy who made a mistake. He does not deserve a year in prison.
Your stance here appalls me I’m afraid.

I think it's crazy that this lad has been put away for a year in prison, because he - at 18 - had sex with a girl aged 17. And many others think this too.

How would we all feel though if she had been 17 and he was 32, 35, 40...?

Should he have gone to prison then? Where should the cut off point be for the older person to NOT go to prison? Less than 21? Less than 23? Less than 25? Less than 30?

I know some people may say 'yeah but at 25, 30, 35+, a person is more likely to know about the strict laws in places like Dubai when it comes to this kind of thing - but ignorance is no defence. My DC knew about these kinds of laws in their mid teens, because they started travelling them - first with the school, then college, then University... If you're going to these countries with these strict laws you HAVE to make sure you know their laws, and all about their culture, because ignorance is no defence.

Suppose someone came to the UK from a very distant and remote culture where they can kill somebody lawfully for touching their head without their permission - even briefly, for a few seconds. Then they come to the UK and someone brushes past them and catches their head, and they pull out a gun and shoot them and kill them? It's perfectly legal in their culture/their land, so should they be let go because they didn't know you couldn't kill people for touching their head?

Just a random example, but I'm trying to illustrate that just because someone claims to not know the law of the land, does that mean they should be allowed to break those laws and walk free? Especially when even the country's own people would be jailed for said crime?

Just playing devils advocate. I think it's a shame that he (Marcus) is in jail, but he did break the law in that country. I can't see our Government intervening to be honest. And I'm not sure they should. I also think the mother of the girl is a nasty piece of work for reporting him. But yeah, as I say, where do we draw the line with people breaking the law? He is 18 and classed as an adult, and he had sex with a 17 year old who is classed as a minor. He did, factually, 100% break the law in that country.

It must be possible as you only sign up with an email. But it is not allowed. So we shall see 😉

@SabreIsMyFave surely a bit of common sense should be involved? No one was harmed and the age gap/age of consent was a matter of weeks. A slapped wrist would’ve done the trick or maybe even a custodial sentence if they’re such sticklers for the rules, a week or something, not a bloody year.

It’s been widely reported the girl is British Indian and Sikh - it’s also been mentioned about a million times on this thread.

And if calling a nasty vindictive woman who made a false rape allegation against a young man for having a holiday fling with her daughter a cow makes me nasty in your eyes - I’ll own that because she’s far far far nastier than anyone commenting on her disgraceful behaviour.

And if he should have kept it zipped maybe the girl should have kept her knickers on..

But I forgot, I’m on MN where every poster was a paragon on virtue in their teens and never ever made a mistake or got carried away. Silly old non sanctimonious far from perfect me

I think the big difference here is hurting other people and the element of threat.

It was a consensual relationship with a 2 month age gap. No one got hurt, he isn't a paedophile going after young children. Prison isn't protecting anyone as he isn't a threat to anyone- it is a punishment for making an error which any teen could make.

Clearly someone going around killing people is a threat to others and needs to be imprisoned for the safety of other people.

A punishment set in motion by the girl’s mother.

Wrong and unfair and, that’s why people are reacting so viscerally. It’s an injustice - the law shouldn’t be used to exact revenge.

She said her daughter had been raped, she knew that she hadn’t. That’s a dreadful thing to do and I hope that should be a consideration for his release at the earliest opportunity.

You aren’t making any new points here, I don’t think anyone doesn’t understand that yes, he broke the law. It is the factors around this case which aren’t so black and white. The fact Marcus and the girl were a similar age is relevant as obviously if a 40 year old man had sex with a 17 year old girl there would be a massive imbalance of power which would raise questions over consent and coercion. In this case, an 18 year old had consensual sex with a 17 year old - who was harmed here? Arguably the most harm is a result of the girls mother reporting this to the police in retrospect, having gone through her daughter’s phone secretly to read her messages. We do not know what her intentions were here but it certainly looks vindictive and spiteful, and it raises questions over race too. Would the mother have reported this if her daughter had sex with a middle class white male? We won’t know, but we can hazard a guess.

Drawing parallels between this case and murder is just silly, considering the level of violence, intent and harm caused by taking someone’s life. The crime here was that an 18 year old boy didn’t educate himself on the laws of the country he was visiting. I think many of us at that age were guilty of similar, I know I was, but is the sentence proportional to the crime? A year in jail at a formative age would be traumatic and life changing in a UK prison, let alone in Dubai where there appears to be human rights violations left, right and centre. Being in such a horrific environment would forever change the trajectory of his life and cause trauma in myriad ways. The fact these prisons exist is perhaps a separate point, as I think this sort of environment is inhumane for any person regardless of the seriousness of their crime.

The facts are no one was harmed by two teenagers having consensual sex, but because this was reported for questionable reasons to the authorities, the male will be sentenced to a year in prison in the most horrific environment which will forever change the trajectory of his life. I think it is reasonable to suggest this punishment is disproportionate to the crime committed.

I don’t know why you are so sure the government won’t intervene. There have been plenty of examples where the government has, which have been cited earlier in the thread.

I happen to believe that anyone who knowingly makes a false accusation against an innocent man of the horrendous crime of rape, deserves the severest punishment.

The fact that the mother waited until she and her daughter had left Dubai before reporting this - knowing what the consequences would be for Marcus - is what makes it obvious this is a calculated attempt by her to destroy a young man's life. I hope she is named & shamed and tbh she would deserve much worse.

I also really hope the UK Government is working hard behind the scenes to get this young man home soon.

It's perfectly legal in their culture/their land, so should they be let go because they didn't know you couldn't kill people for touching their head?

What a very silly comparison. Of course we can't just 'let people go' for killing someone. An 18-year-old having consensual sex with a person who's almost 18 doesn't harm anyone.

If posters are going to keep pulling all this whataboutery, can we please at least have some sensible hypotheticals?

I also really hope the UK Government is working hard behind the scenes to get this young man home soon

Absolutely. Lammy has come in for some criticism on this thread, but we don't know what might be happening behind the scenes. It has to be handled really carefully. Remember Johnson and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe?

False accusations of rape are a criminal offence in UAE. I suspect she won’t be returning. There is an extradition treaty but UK courts often say no due to human rights violations.

Now wouldn't that be an interesting development - extradition for breaking UAE laws. Karmic even......

the law shouldn’t be used to exact revenge

Absolutely this 👆

Perfectly summed in a sentence.

The mum has used the law to punish someone who doesn't because she doesn't like what her DD did.