A man who posed as a mobile masseur has been jailed for more than ten years for indecently assaulting 14 woman. He had made t shirts and cards claiming he had a business and he visited their houses.
Meanwhile, two men accused of sexually molesting an eleven year old boy are not facing rape charges. The case parallels others in which a 10 yo girl was gang raped by 9 who were not given jail time. Also, a 24 yo man was described as being a victim after raping a 13 yo boy.
So if the victims are old enough, the charges are worse?
Abuse of 11-year-old boy not rape, says judge
ReplyDeleteBy Ashleigh Wilson
TWO men and three teenagers who sexually abused an 11-year-old boy at a remote Top End Aboriginal community should not be called rapists, according to a Supreme Court judge.
But Northern Territory Supreme Court judge Trevor Riley yesterday questioned whether a suspended sentence would be appropriate for one of the teenagers accused of assaulting the boy at Maningrida, 500km east of Darwin.
Claevon Cooper and Isiah Pascoe, both now 20, pleaded guilty to abusing the boy along with three teenagers - 14, 17 and 18.
The offences occurred between April and May last year, and the court was told the boy was assaulted on three separate occasions at the large coastal community in Arnhem Land.
Guilty pleas
The five males pleaded guilty in October to a total of eight charges, but only two of the defendants, Cooper and the 18-year-old, were accused of having sexual intercourse with the boy.
Pascoe was accused of orally penetrating the victim, while another teenager fondled the boy's buttocks.
During sentencing submissions yesterday, Justice Riley asked the media to "exercise care" when describing the offences involved in the case, saying none of the five males had been charged with rape.
He said rape was a "much more serious offence" that attracted a maximum sentence of life behind bars. But the most serious offence faced in the current case was sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16 years, he said.
"The penalty for that is imprisonment for 16 years," Justice Riley said.
"So it's absolutely a very, very serious offence but it's not the same as rape, because in relation to that offence there is no issue as to consent. When this matter is reported, I have no difficulty with it being pointed out just how serious the matters are, but it would quite misleading to use the label rape, because that would suggest that they had pleaded guilty to a different offence under the Criminal Code to the one to which they had pleaded."
Similar cases
Justice Riley's comments come as the Queensland Government faces pressure over the gang rape of a 10-year-old girl at Aurukun, an Aboriginal community in Cape York. None of the nine males charged with the rape were sent to jail.
It also follows Judge Michael Kelly's December 17 finding that the rape of a 13-year-old Victorian boy by a 24-year-old man was "adolescent experimentation" and said the teen and the perpetrator were "both victims".
Question of consent
Mark Johnson, the president of the NT Bar Association, said last night he was not aware of the details of the Maningrida case but the charge of sexual intercourse with a child under 16 did not necessarily imply the absence of consent.
"They can prove the victim was a child, that the offender was an adult and that there was penetration," Mr Johnson said.
"But they might not be able to prove consent or the absence of consent.
"They have to prove not only that the victim didn't consent, but that the offender or offenders were aware that the victim was not consenting."
Question of seriousness
However Mr Johnson said that did not necessarily mean Territory law viewed sexual intercourse with a child as less serious than the rape of an adult.
"Usually it's a situation where the prosecution cannot prove the absence of consent," he said.
"Sexual intercourse without consent, if it's between an adult and a child and all other things being equal, the fact of it being a child would be considered more serious. That would be an aggravating factor."
Last month, the Territory Supreme Court sent an email to the media saying the court was concerned that referring to the Maningrida defendants as rapists may "create community expectations about how the defendants are dealt with in future by the court".
Northern Territory police began investigating the case in June last year after the victim was treated for gonorrhoea at a Darwin hospital. There is no suggestion he contracted the disease from one of the accused.
STDs in young children
The case coincides with new figures, released by the Northern Territory Health Department, showing children younger than four were found to have sexually transmitted diseases.
In court yesterday, defence lawyer Greg Smith asked Justice Riley to consider a suspended sentence for one of the teenage defendants, saying his client realised he had made a mistake, attended school sporadically, had little English and felt smoking cannabis made him do "bad things".
Mr Smith said the boy's lifestyle in Maningrida had been difficult, with overcrowded housing, a sense of hopelessness, and exposure to cannabis and pornography.
In the committal hearing earlier this year, Darwin Magistrates Court was told the boy had been bound with shoelaces and drugged before being repeatedly sexually assaulted.
Those claims were not included in the crown facts presented to the Supreme Court.
The case was adjourned until this morning.
Jail for fake masseur who groped women
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A MAN who posed as a mobile masseur has been jailed for more than 10 years for indecently assaulting 14 women.
Damien Tektonopoulos assaulted the women over almost two years from August 2004 in their own homes when he pretended to be a qualified and experienced masseur.
Tektonopoulos, 37, brought a massage table and printed T-shirts and business cards with `Damien's mobile massage' and approached women in shopping centres in Melbourne's west for business.
Victorian County Court Judge Margaret Rizkalla today said the assaults were not random, opportunistic or spontaneous, but the very reason for Tektonopoulos setting up the massage business.
Judge Rizkalla said Tektonopoulos had touched the women inappropriately on the genital area, breast, buttocks, groin and inner thigh area and digitally raped two women.
She said Tektonopoulos abused the women's trust while they were in a vulnerable situation in their own homes.
Tektonopoulos was found guilty in October of 15 counts of indecent assault and one of digital rape on five victims.
Last month he pleaded guilty to a further 10 counts of indecent assault and one count of rape on another nine women.
Sentencing Tektonopoulos today on all counts, Judge Rizkalla jailed him for 10 years and three months, with a non-parole period of eight years.
11-year-old's sex attackers jailed
ReplyDeleteBy Tara Ravens
AN 11-year-old boy could be blamed by his community for the sentences handed to three teenagers and two adults who sexually assaulted him at a remote Aboriginal community, a court heard today.
Four of the five males today were jailed for a total of 32 months for the attacks at Maningrida, 500km south of Darwin.
The sentences ranged from 15 months for one attacker, to a good behaviour bond for another, and one month in juvenile detention for the youngest offender, who was less than two years older than his victim at the time of the attacks.
Isiah Pascoe and Claevon Cooper, both now aged 20, pleaded guilty to four of the eight charges against the group, the youngest of whom was 13 at the time.
The boy was anally penetrated twice, fondled several times and performed oral sex at two houses and a swimming hole between April and August last year.
"The boys did bad things to me," the victim said in a statement read to the court.
"It hurt me a little bit."
Sentencing the males today, Justice Trevor Riley said "things had not gone smoothly for the victim" in the wake of the attacks and his future remained uncertain.
"For him at the very least the experience must have been disturbing," he said.
Justice Riley also accepted the attackers had a limited education, only a basic understanding of European ways, suffered from boredom and frustration in a remote area and used pornography as a form of sex education.
He said Cooper, who pleaded guilty to sexual intercourse with a child under 16, had acted in a opportunistic and not predatory fashion.
He rejected defence requests for a wholly suspended sentence saying: "I don't think that is a sufficient response to the serious offending that occurred".
Cooper was sentenced to three years and nine months, suspended after 15 months.
Pascoe, who pleaded guilty to oral penetration, will spend a minimum of 10 months in prison.
One of the teenagers, who cannot be named, was given a good behaviour bond for a fondling charge while another, now 18, was given two years and six months, suspended after six months, for having anal sex with the boy.
The youngest of the offenders, only one year and five months older than the victim, was sentenced to one month in juvenile detention.
"(He) creates a very difficult sentencing problem," Justice Riley said.
"He was friends with the (victim) and they played together and sought each other out when they were both in the community."
The sentencing follows recent controversy over the Cape York gang rape case in which nine men escaped jail sentences over the rape of a 10-year-old girl.
Crown Prosecutor Jon Tippett QC said victim had been forced to move out of the community and had come to the attention of police in recent months.
"Risky and self destructive behaviour is not uncommon for victims of sexual assault," he said.
"There is also a real risk that exploiting adults see the victim as a target."
Mr Tippett said the boy's safety was at risk if he returned to Maningrida.
"The Crown does not accept that the community of Maningrida has resolved this situation and that the family of the victim or the victim himself is able to return to Maningrida at this time," he said.
"The victim will be blamed for any sentence in this court ... and in particular if sentences of imprisonment are imposed in this case the victim's safety is at risk."
The victim is expected to live at on outstation for the near future, despite his desire to return to Maningrida.