It is apparently OK to have sex with a 12 year old

[epicfail]

No really, I kid you not. Where I live, it is absolutely fine. Just so long as you 'reasonably believe' the child to be 18. Oh, and it helps if you are also on some kind of medication that causes hypersexualisation, which in turn causes you to become 'addicted' to using prostitutes.

NONE of the other (up to 120) men who had sex with this girl will be charged, even though some have admitted to it, because the room they were in was too dark and dingy for them to have 'reasonably known' that she was 12.
Also, each case would have had to have been tried individually meaning the girl would have had to to testify each time.

www.themercury.com.au/article/2011/11/29/280691_scalesofjustice.html

The back stories are all there under the Scales of Justice heading.

I am sitting here in tears of impotent frustration. How? HOW can this happen?

Brothels are illegal here. So is street based prostitution. Prostitutes can work legally if they work with no more than one other person. One cannot manage the other, therefore pimps are illegal.

People are using this case to call for legalising the whole industry, registering the workers and giving them dinky little i.d cards so that no-one can accidentally buy a 12 year old again. (thats going to work, right?)
You are right Beachcomber people are saying poor old Terry had every right to visit an 18 year old prostitute and that he was terribly unlucky to be duped by her and Devine. Disgusting.

Our weekend papers last week were screaming that brothels should be legalised, so that disabled people could exercise their 'right' to use a prostitute in safe surroundings... apparently a few disabled people have been robbed and assualted while purchasing sex.

Since when is buying sex a 'right' FFS!

Ah I was under the impression that brothels were legal and state registered - which in effect makes pimping legal. Perhaps brothels are only legal in some states, I understand the law varies from state to state.

iirc brothels are legal in Victoria and have been for quite a long time

I was at a seminar about paedophilia today when 2 young girls mentioned how it must be hard for judges to decide if a perpetrator has slept with a young teenage girl by accident or if he meant to. Their exact words . When asked to elaborate they said if the girl persuades the man or lies about her age, it's her fault [anger]. The girls speaking were fairly young but were 3rd year students at a 'good' London University. I was absolutely astounded

DingDong - whilst it's sad that those women (not girls if they are at University, surely?) had those views, I'm surprised that you are surprised. The same views are expressed on MN, in the papers, in the pub, on the radio etc etc whenever a "oh, I don't realise her age" defence is made in a rape case (or any other defence, actually). Every reason in the book is trotted out to excuse a rapist's actions.

Yes women, I think thinking "girls" helps me feel a bit younger as I am convinced I am still 18 and not the parent of a child nearer to their age than I am . I did find it surprising as part of supposedly reasoned debate. I have looked at threads in this section previously and not seen much evidence of some of the abhorrent opinions people encounter in my day to day interactions before. I think another reason it made me feel so sad is that it came from young women who I didn't expect to have such a low opinion of their peers and by extension themselves. I guess I saw it as evidence of their indoctrination or something. Bear with me though this is new ground for me to post about or even think that much about TBH

You'll hear them everywhere now, you know, and you'll curse because that shit surrounds us and the rage will be overwhelming. Or is that just me

Yep I expect so, DP will be talked at on a daily basis about my emerging consciousness