Community sentence for rape of a 13 year old

[Shelefttheweb]

Wtf?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-65164041

Literally unbelievable. If you were 25 you'd serve 5 years. You weren't so it doesn't matter.

First time offender - only one young girl’s life in shatters so….

Scottish Government: 4 year olds are totally capable of knowing what gender they are and consenting to sterilisation and lifelong medication, but 17 year olds can’t be expected to be held accountable for rape.

That's appalling. What new sentencing guidelines are these, are they supposed to be used to let rapists off with no jail time?

As well as 270 hours of community work, Hogg was also put under supervision and on the sex offenders register for three years.

An offender who views illegal images on line would expect up to 10 years on the sex offenders register, this guy is only on it for 3 years??

What the fuck?
Increasingly I think that women should start taking the law into their own hands because our respective governments and police forces just don't have the stomach for protecting women from male violence.

I'm so angry about this.

Scotland brought in new sentencing guidelines for under 25 year olds recently:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-60137866

they are supposed to focus on rehabilitation due to recent scientific understanding of brain development in that age group. In general I’m supportive. I don’t think it’s at all appropriate in this case. Rape is too severe and young women deserve protection more than young men need rehabilitation outside of prison.

I’m also a bit shocked that repeated rape of a 13 year old using force would, in the eyes of this judge, warrant a sentence of only 5 years even if the rapist were over 25.

It's results like this that make me genuinely wonder if I'd call the cops if my lo was raped.

What sort of message does this give?

If you are a child aged 13 (and under the age of consent) you can be raped in a park, the rapist gets a minimum sentence, but you have to live with the attack for the rest of your life.

If you are under 25 years old, and you ‘fancy your chances’ you can rape children in the park and only get a slap on the wrist, community service and your name taken off the sex offenders list before your late 20’s are over.

Where is the justice in that? At 17 you are more than capable of knowing between right and wrong and that children are not capable of consent :(

What is this country???!!
Appalling.

It feels like this is saying it doesn't really matter what happens to our girls. Really sad.

This is awful and I hope there is an appeal . I cant even understand what the judge was thinking.

Wow, that was hard to read.

Shocking decision.

All of the above. Appalling.

I’m also a bit shocked that repeated rape of a 13 year old using force would, in the eyes of this judge, warrant a sentence of only 5 years even if the rapist were over 25.

I thought that too. Children should be able to walk in public spaces without being attacked and raped. 5 years is nothing.

Women and girls don't matter. What an appalling sentence. I hope he gets "community justice" while he is out serving his pathetic sentence.

That.

Rape can destroy a girl or woman's life as well as injure their body. And then some dick will require that they 'reframe their trauma' and access rape support where other men are sitting getting their needs met by being alongside women talking about being raped.

WTAF?

Surely these guidelines were intended for crimes like theft, moderate drug related crime etc.

I cannot begin to think how her parents are feeling right now (and the poor, poor girl herself, of course).

It feels dangerously like incitement to vigilanteeism.

I would be very reluctant unless I needed some kind of criminal investigation to support legally keeping someone away from her. I think it’s likely to be far more traumatising for a child (and many adults) to go through the revictimization that the police and courts put rape victims through than to concentrate on counseling and moving on (though I’d possibly seek vengeance some other way).

When I saw headline I assumed this was going to be statutory rape when he was 15 and her 13, perhaps he'd already spent time in prison awaiting trial so that was counted..

But no, it's as completely fucking horrendous as the headline makes it sound.

Agree with others that - quite aside from blatant injustice and failure of deterrence - one of the reasons to have a justice system is to stop people feeling they need to take matters into their own hands and this clearly fails on that front.

What utterly incompetent sentencing. i can see this kind of thing being used for crimes such as theft of damage to property but he raped a child. Just WTAF. I hope this is appealed, it’s appalling.

The sentence is a disgrace. I suspect that the community will take matters into its own hands.

Rape is slowly becoming legalised in the de facto sense, i.e., the consequences from raping someone are getting smaller and smaller in the probabilistic sense, even if rape is still a crime in de jure sense, i.e., in the books.

In Scotland a 17 year old can vote in some elections. So perfectly capable of knowing right and wrong.

Given the photo of the convicted offender being published, I can see someone taking action. Dalkeith is not a large place.