The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is District Judge Sarah Bradley. She gets the award for the following.

THE Queensland opposition has called for an immediate inquiry into the sentencing procedure behind the gang-rape case of a 10-year-old girl whose nine attackers escaped jail time.

Nine males who pleaded guilty last month to gang-raping a 10-year-old girl at the Aurukun Aboriginal community on Cape York have escaped a prison term, with the sentencing judge saying the child victim "probably agreed" to have sex with them.

Cairns-based District Court judge Sarah Bradley ordered that the six teenage juveniles not even have a conviction recorded for the 2005 offence, and that they be placed on a 12-month probation order.

Queensland Attorney-General Kerry Shine today met with Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Leanne Clare to seek advice on whether the case could be successfully appealed under state laws, despite the deadline having passed.

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“Under Queensland law a child under 12 cannot give consent to sexual intercourse.”

Liberal leader Mark McArdle said Mr Shine had no choice but to try for an appeal in the wake of community uproar.

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Judge Bradley sentenced three men over the age of consent of 16 - aged 17, 18 and 26 - to six months' imprisonment, with the sentence suspended for 12 months.

Because the 28-day appeal period has expired, the sentences cannot be altered.

Judge Bradley said from her Cairns home yesterday that she considered the sentences "appropriate" in the case because they were the penalties asked for by the Crown prosecutor.

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When sentencing seven co-accused on October 24 at Aurukun, Judge Bradley noted: "The girl involved was not forced and she probably agreed to have sex with all of you."

The four juveniles are aged 14 to 16 years. They and the adults come from some of the most prominent and powerful Aboriginal families on Cape York.

Two more juveniles pleaded guilty on November 6 to raping the child, and were also given probation with no convictions recorded.

The child victim, now aged 12, does not enjoy the elevated family status of her attackers, and has had to be removed from Aurukun and put with foster parents.

News of the non-custodial sentences has added to the violent hatreds that exist in Aurukun between families and tribes and which have played a part in recent brawls involving dozens of assailants, many armed with sticks and spears.

One of the adult rapists, Raymond Frederick Woolla, 26, is on the Australian National Child Offence Register following a conviction on March 29 last year for unlawful carnal knowledge of a female child - an offence committed after he was charged with the rape of the 10-year-old girl.

Probation for raping a 10-year-old. The judge should know what is too, and ignores that one of the men was a sex offender. Read the whole article, it will want to make you sick. Cairns-based District Court judge Sarah Bradley is today's Knucklehead of the Day.

Hat tip- Casey at Wizbang
Linked to- Adam, Bright & Early, Leaning Straight Up, Right Wing Nation, Rosemary,