Rapists jailed for just 40 months after judge says 11-year-old victim was 'willing'

[KRITIQ]

story here.

"Judge David Farrell QC jailed them both for just 40 months each as he accepted the claim that she was willing and looked "at least" 14."

Funny, but I thought 14 was still under the age of consent for sex with a 21 year old man, quite apart from the fact that how a girl or woman "looks" should NEVER be a justification for rape, full stop.

I despair.

It's in all likelihood a lie that she was "willing". It'll have been the rapists' defense lawyers who claimed she was.

Fucking judge, has he any idea what his pronouncements about her will do to her. Bastard.

Why isn't this all over the national papers? What can we do?

Oh, and TonyN- please don't bringbyour agenda to this thread. It's too important for that.

This sickens me so much that I'm not sure I can even articulate my thoughts and feelings properly. All I can coherently say is "this is WRONG." and what good is that to anyone? Clearly no one listens and if they do the. They don't care. How are we supposed to protect our children if the 'justice' system does this to them?

Like Seeker I want to know what I can do. I can link the article to my Facebook page but I'm almost scared that people might say the same things as the judge did.

yep. if even gang raping an 11 yo child doesn't attract a proper sentence you can imagine how this man deals with cases of raped women he presides over.

this should be a scandal. remarkably blatant that he can do and say this and still have his job.

Judicial Complaints Office

They will only deal with complaints about the personal conduct of a judge, not the outcome of a hearing or a decision s/he makes. But the will deal with complaints about the use of sexist language in court.

Any complaint would have to be carefully worded to make it clear that a) the complaint is solely against his description of the girl as "willing" and b) that using a comparator of an 11 year old boy, it is inconceivable that the same wording would be used.

it is inconceivable isn't it? which means what, women are 'made' for fucking therefore that's their role and they're all gagging for it? where as a boy is not a designated fuck hole therefore a man who fucks him is abhorrent? or because i look at girl children and feel sexually aroused i'll project that onto them and call it their sexualness rather than my perversion?

Does anyone know what we can do? I can't bear to let this pass.

I would help in any way I can. I have turned from upset and sickened to actually fucking furious and full of rage about this.

write to

your mp
judicial complaints office - link upthread
and
attorney general complaining about unduly lenient sentence

"Anyone can ask the Attorney General to look at a case
Victims, their families, and members of the public can contact the Attorney General's Office if they think a sentence is much too light.
It's easy to ask the Attorney General to look at a case - you don't need a lawyer. To ask for a sentence to be looked at, you'll need some basic information. This includes:
the name of the person who was sentenced;
the name of the Crown Court where the sentence was passed;
the crimes committed;
the date of sentence.
.
And also tell us which case you are concerned about and why you think it should be changed. You should contact the Correspondence Unit. The Attorney General's Office will email you when a decision is made whether to refer the case to the Court of Appeal.
Don't worry if you don't have all the information, but the more you can give us, the more likely it is that we will find the right case.
If you can, also phone the Attorney General's Office on 020 7271 2492. You may need to leave a message."

email [email protected]

It is utterly shocking and infuriating that this can happen.
And a person in a position of considerable power can publicly spout stuff like 'she looked older' 'was a willing participant' .

Sardine, thank you for those contact details - I shall make good use of them.

FFS. I dispair.

I.m bumping this to remind people to write. A little depressed that I have to, to be honest- I would have though it's be at the top of active convos.

MumsnetHQ- could this be moved to a more active topic? (fully aware of the irony of the request)

Bump.

I have written to the Attorney General, as above. Will look at the Judicial Complaints route as well.

There has been quite a negative response to this in Luton, not surprisingly, and someone has started a petition to get the sentences reviewed here.

Good! Come on every one else!

.

I find this really quite scary. My dd is 11 and is regularly mistaken for being much older, simply because she is tall and likes to act in what she thinks of as a mature way. I've always worried a bit for her because I was sexually assaulted when I was not much older than she is now. Terrible enough to be attacked and raped, but then to be told by someone is a position of huge power that essentially you asked for it is really despicable.

I think that the legal grey area that seems to be in place for those who have 'consensual' sex with children over 13 but below 16 needs to be changed so that it is only ever considered non criminal if the other person is very close in age (two years or less) as this isn't the first time that this sort of defense has been successful, and it shouldn't IMO even be an option. A 21 year old having sex (consensual or not) with a 14 year old should be considered a rapist, and if it turns out that they were significantly younger then they should get an especially long sentence. Bastards.

Will you help me keep this active? I am so depressed by the lack of interest being shown.

Bumping and getting ready to write some letters/emails too

Mumsnet hq- could you move this to a more high traffic area, please?

Just received the following response to my email:

Thank you for your email concerning the sentences given to both Roshane
Channer & Ruben Monteiro.

We are aware of this case and have already asked the Crown Prosecution
Service (CPS) for more information about the case so that the Law
Officers can look at the sentence passed to see whether it should be
referred to the Court of Appeal as unduly lenient.

This office is unable to look into complaints about the Judiciary, if
you do have any concerns, you may wish to direct them to the Office for
Judicial Complaints, contact details can be found on their website, the
address is judicialcomplaints.judiciary.gov.uk/index.htm

Yours sincerely

James Ross
Correspondence Unit

------

Looks like Judicial Complaints route will be more productive (see up thread.)

Rarely respond to threads, but this is sickening... I thought judges/ attitudes like this had died out! .

Will write to MP and judicial complaints, but want this judge censured. How can mumsnet create more 'fuss' about this case? The outrage about Olympic tickets for newborns that started here made it to radio 4, Guardian etc in a couple of days. C'mon Mumsnet HQ- any contacts on Woman's Hour?

This is bloody sickening. It's sickening to hear those kind of attitudes from 'normal' people but to hear it from a judge... words fail me.

If we write to MPs and request that s/he writes to the appropriate Minister on the issue, the letter will go to the Minister.

Letters from MPs always have to have a Ministerial response.

What about child protection organisations, any of them involved?