Rape Judge ‘Soft’ on Pervs
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THE judge who sparked controversy by refusing to jail nine males who raped a 10-year-old girl—claiming she “agreed to sex”—has a history of being lenient with sex offenders.
It can also be revealed that the victim in the case which has shocked Australia was also repeatedly assaulted when she was even younger.
District Court judge Sarah Bradley was under fire yesterday for not ordering convictions against six teenagers and for issuing suspended sentences to three other offenders.
All nine pleaded guilty to the 2005 rape in the Cape York Aboriginal community of Aurukun.
Judge Bradley said during sentencing remarks that the girl “probably agreed to have sex with all” of the offenders.
Attorney-General Kerry Shine announced last night that he would appeal the sentence, which was handed down in a closed court on October 24.
The decision came as The Daily Telegraph learned that the girl was also the victim of serious sexual assaults when she was aged five and eight.
The girl, now 12, had exhibited highly dysfunctional, sexualised behaviours as a result of the assaults she suffered as a very small child.
Leading Aboriginal figures yesterday called for Judge Bradley, 51, to be stood down while the case was reviewed.
The Cairns-based District Court judge, who earns upwards of $300,000 a year, has complained to colleagues that “sentencing indigenous offenders is never easy”.
Judge Bradley, who has refused to comment on her latest controversy, has been no stranger to public scorn and anger since her appointment to the District Court in March 1999.
In 2002, her findings were the most frequently overturned by the Court of Appeal of any Queensland judge.
In 2001, Judge Bradley imposed a wholly suspended jail term, without conviction, on a 17-year-old youth who raped his grandmother. The court was told the youth raped his grandmother while she was in a drunken sleep.
In sentencing the youth to 12 months’ detention, but making an immediate release order, Judge Bradley said she had taken into account the fact that the youth had been 16 at the time of the offence and was remorseful.
The decision was overturned on appeal, with the teen sentenced to four years’ detention with a conviction recorded.
In July 2001, Judge Bradley imposed a wholly suspended one-year jail term on a Catholic school principal convicted of molesting a 15-year-old student.
Judge Bradley was told the Marist Brother and principal of St Augustine’s College in Cairns sexually assaulted a 15-year-old student during a school camping trip.
Judge Bradley has outlined her thought processes in papers presented at conferences around the country in recent years.
“Sentencing indigenous offenders is never easy,” she told a conference in Perth earlier this year.
“There are times when the offending behaviour clearly warrants the imposition of severe and significant penalties.
“There are also times when a judge who has knowledge of a community . . . and the full particulars of those involved may decide that an alternative penalty is appropriate.”
In sentencing the offenders over the Aurukun case, Judge Bradley ordered that the six teenage juveniles be placed on a 12-month probation order.
She sentenced three men aged 17, 18 and 26 to six months’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months.
And in April 2002, Judge Bradley was found to have used a “fictional passage” from a High Court case when she dismissed a $250,000 compensation claim from a family who lost their home after a cyclone.
The Court of Appeal found she had also stopped key witnesses giving evidence and had missed “the point of the plaintiff’s case at trial”.
Griffith University Professor Boni Robertson yesterday said Judge Bradley should be made to stand down pending a full investigation.
“She (Judge Bradley) is being as negligent as you could imagine within a system,” she said.
“Somebody who has the judicial power to bring someone to justice, somebody who has the ability to say to perpetrators ‘This is not going to be tolerated’, somebody who has the ability to say to the country ‘This system will never allow this sort of act to be condoned’ has been negligent.”
Abused Child Trust chairman, pediatrician Dr David Wood, said the judge’s remarks showed a shocking lack of empathy for child victims of abuse.
“A 10-year-old child can’t agree to have sex with anyone,” Dr Wood said.
“Failing to impose a jail term on these men, one a repeat sex offender, is just appalling.”
Judge Bradley was one of a series of women judicial appointments by then Queensland attorney-general Matt Foley.
The group include a who’s who of the current bench—dubbed in legal circles as “Foley’s Angels”—and include former chief magistrate Di Fingleton, Chief Judge Patsy Wolf and Appeal Court president Margaret McMurdo.
Judge Bradley was sworn in as a solicitor in 1980, appointed a Rockhampton magistrate in 1993 and presided in Townsville and Palm Island from 1995 to 1999.
Judge Bradley was last year appointed president of the Australian Association of Women Judges and in 2000 became a member of the District Court Judges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Committee.
(Posted on December 11, 2007)
Comments
The never ending sympathy for nonwhites is getting on my nerves! These stupid so-called “Whites” (are they, really?) are the ones who are really the worst of the lot. Too bad they don’t have some “bad experiences” with these aborigines, up close and personal….
Posted by at 7:26 PM on December 11
“Sentencing indigenous offenders is never easy,” she told a conference in Perth earlier this year.
Tough…..very tough. On the one hand, this is an unacceptable refusal to punish criminal behavior. But, on the other hand, what do you do when, day in, day out, this sort of thing comes before your bench and, more importantly, the community considers it normal behavior?
The real issue here, is that the Aboriginal community is a significant danger to the normal population and should be isolated from it.
Posted by at 8:35 PM on December 11
“In 2002, her findings were the most frequently overturned by the Court of Appeal of any Queensland judge.”
Yet they allow her to stay without disqualifying her as they should, just as they do the kooks here who render one bad decision after another.
There should be a citizen’s oversight committee to determine judicial misconduct, because there’s so much of it. Additionally, there are some authentic nut cases who wield tremendous power from the bench that should be instantly removed, because of their mental aberations.
Many of them commit crimes while serving as well. Because of their unworldliness and obvious biases, the legal community shouldn’t be allowed to police themselves. It’s preposterous.
Posted by Robert Kelly at 8:38 PM on December 11
Remember the old days when British missionaries and colonialists actually tried to civilize the uncivilized. Now that Western culture has been mortally infected by marxism, there is no right and wrong, no objective standard, and no pride in ones culture. Now how can the judge, judge?
Posted by Flamethrower at 9:51 PM on December 11
Apparently, getting a good night’s sleep for herself (based on her twisted leftist mindset) is more important than letting the tax-paying citizens, who depend on her for legal justice and logical rationale, get theirs.
Posted by ZKR at 12:02 AM on December 12
This judge needs to be removed from the bench. What a disgrace.
Posted by at 7:13 AM on December 12
“Now that Western culture has been mortally infected by marxism, there is no right and wrong, no objective standard, and no pride in ones culture”.
This may be what the intelligencia say in their defense, but don’t believe them. They definitely believe in right and wrong and that some cultures are better than others.
Posted by at 12:24 PM on December 12
“judge Sarah Bradley”
After many years as a probation officer, I have come to the conclusion that virtually all feminazi judges and attorneys, including prosecutors condone rapes and child molestations if done by a non white male.
But let a White male look at a woman the wrong way, and the feminazi attorneys want him fired from his job and sued for millions for this so called sexual harassement.
Posted by margaret at 1:37 PM on December 12
This is only a clash of contradictions within the Liberal community.
The RACE Liberals want the natives to be treated with “respect”, meaning they can commit all kinds of acts that whites consider serious crimes, but it is part of the “native culture” or caused by “institutional racism and poverty”.
The FEMINIST Liberals are the avenging angels of all females, including those who are not feminists. They insist that every offense against women should be punished to the maximum extent possible, even if we need new laws to make the punishment really stink. (In the absence of the guilty, they are not opposed to hanging a few examples in reprisal.)
Oh, how much easier this would be if the Judge were a bald, middle-aged, white guy. The fact that the Judge is a woman is particularly troubling to the feminazis.
Posted by Don Reynolds at 2:55 PM on December 12
Theres alot missing from this article. These were the sentences asked for by the prosecutor so were the limit of what the judge could impose. The prosecutor has been stood down.
The more interesting part was that the girl was first abused at the age of 7 and put into foster care with a white family away from her community. The Department for Child Protection deemed leaving her with white parents would be like having another stolen generation so moved her back to her native community where the gang rape then took place. She is now back with white foster parents.
Abo leaders are now saying that children at risk should be removed from the community to keep them safe. But of course they still want white people to say sorry.
Posted by Kurt at 5:30 PM on December 12