Just when we thought that there had been enough outcry over ‘talented’ rapists being let off with light sentences, and that judges will now think twice about it, a New Zealand judge does it again! An eighteen-year-old sportsman sexually assaulted a fourteen-year-old girl, and then a few months later raped another girl. Who knows how many girls in between, or since, that suffered at his hands, have chosen not to come forward?
As usual, there was no mention about how his victims’ futures have now been compromised. School girls, especially, suffer from being victim-blamed, as their youthful social structures buy into patriarchal misogyny in order to stay onside with the boys. The male perpetrators, of course, are Teflon-coated. The girls often leave school, because of the hell they get there. They leave with their futures gone awry, and their confidence crushed. No-one rallies around them in the same way as the talented rapist is supported. However, a few badly treated women and girls appear to be no more than collateral damage, when a man has success in his sights. Can’t let what is considered a bit of a bump in that road de-rail him.
Except it isn’t a bump in the road for those he has harmed. Ask anyone who has been assaulted in any way, especially sexually assaulted – man, woman, or child – and the story is always the same. It annihilates them. Sure, they may get on with life, but it’s not the life they might have had. And what does society lose out on when a person is unable to fulfill their potential? What about if a person is so destroyed, that their only way of dealing with that is to destroy back whatever they can? The perpetrator moves on, those who have been harmed don’t.
This young sportsman with a bright future got references and recommendations from those who didn’t want to see that bright future dimmed. They quite happily sacrificed the girls for him – the usual story. I would put money on it that this young sportsman goes on to further his misogynistic behaviour, after a wee cooling off period, because, in all likelihood, this behaviour is in his bones. Those who assault others just because they can, don’t usually stop without significant intervention.
The slap on the wrist the judge gave this multiple offender is an outrage. Would he have been so lenient on this promising young sportsman, if he had sexually assaulted and raped young boys?
Here’s the report from Stuff:
A B'Old Woman 
Social media blows up such incidents and the shrapnel spreads wide. Even pre-teens are never without their phones over here. Misogyny is still in force and the “boys will be boys” automatic response as well. Sports figures figure into the equation, of course. And the teflon is triple-coated.
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I sincerely hope the shrapnel does spread wide. Sportsmen do seem to feature a lot in this kind of miscarriage of justice. Can you imagine a judge letting off a super-talented computer geek in the same way?
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Wow Katrina, I am thoroughly enjoying your posts. You hit the nail on the head! The sentencing was and is outrageous. I am horrified.
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Yes, it beggars belief that a judge will hand down a sentence like this, after all the outcry about similar leniencies towards other “talented” rapists. I hope that this matter doesn’t go away.
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I was also outraged at this report. When will we see justice for the survivors!
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It’s a complete travesty of justice!
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Justice. There is none beyond what the Golds administer to their liking. Compassion lacks in the hearts of corruption if there is a heart at all. Corruption is the blood of rulers. Depravity is the unspoken creed of governments and its lackeys throughout the world, throughout history, with no exceptions of note. Peace and all that the word implies is nothing more than a symbol smeared on a bathroom wall. I’m not surprised by this singular travesty of justice, another in the long line of unrelenting atrocities. But the rage inside never relents.
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So true, Peter – the rage never relents. I have found that it is less fiery than it used to be, but it doesn’t go away completely. I often wonder how some people can stand to have no fire in their belly – it seems such a bland existence. Lol! However, I’m sure they see it differently to that. I’m a long way from what anyone would call a ‘firebrand’, but compared to some, I positively burn with outrage over these injustices. I don’t imagine that the injustices will ever go away, as long as humans walk the earth, so gotta keep that fire burning 🙂
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I often wonder how our fellow homo sapiens can blithely go on with “just the way things are” belief systems, lifestyles, and justifications that not only shrug at the most loathsome things that humans are capable of, but revel in the “natural” violence that is somehow a “natural” right bestowed by their creator or civilization, the pride of the hunter at big-game prizes on his den wall, all manner of horror. Many in this country take pride in our prison-industrial complex and in our ability to build concentration camps that are adjunct to our prisons. I also often describe slaughterhouses as concentration camps. Humans are very good at lowering the bar.
I take pride in my unrelenting rage and am proud to join you and Peter in the trenches.
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