"GLEESON CJ AND KIRBY J. Professor Glanville Williams said that almost the only knowledge of law that many people possess is the knowledge that ignorance of the law is no excuse when a person is charged with an offence1. This does not mean that people are presumed to know the law. Such a presumption would be absurd. Rather, it means that, if a person is alleged to have committed an offence, it is both necessary and sufficient for the prosecution to prove the elements of the offence, and it is irrelevant to the question of guilt that the accused person was not aware that those elements consbreastuted an offence." (Ostrowski v Palmer 2004 HCA 30 (16 June 2004))
This High Court judgement torpedoes any possibility that the defendant in the rape case above could expect leniency because he did not know raping a 14 year old girl was illegal.
When Aboriginal paedophiles receive the same sentences as non-Aboriginal paedophiles, the outcomes for children in Aboriginal communities will be the same as those on non-Aboriginal communities.
Until that happens our judicial system is practicing racism at its most abhorrent.
-- DM personal opinion only
