Ed. Yet another example that not all cultures are equal...
Child-love elder gets one month Ashleigh Wilson August 18, 2005
A ONE-MONTH sentence for under-age love with an Aboriginal girl has been justified on the grounds it was a clash of cultures and generations.
The Northern Territory Director of Public Prosecutions has indicated he may appeal against the leniency of the sentence imposed on a 55-year-old Aboriginal man who abused his 14-year-old "promised wife".
Territory Supreme Court Chief Justice Brian Martin travelled last week to the remote Aboriginal community of Yarralin, west of Katherine, to hear the "extremely difficult case".
The Aboriginal elder pleaded guilty to aggravated buttault and having love with a child.
The teenager had been promised to him as a wife, according to Aboriginal law, when she was four. After rumours in the community that the teenager might have had love with her boyfriend, the man hit her with a boomerang and had love with her.
Justice Martin said the act of intercourse was a "very serious offence". But he sentenced the man to 24 months in prison, suspended after one month.
The teenage victim has reportedly fled the community, headed for Darwin, after locals blamed her for the elder's imprisonment.
In sentencing the man, Justice Martin said he had a "great deal of sympathy" for the offender and the difficulties he had in moving between traditional culture and Territory law.
"It is always difficult when Northern Territory law is in conflict with traditional Aboriginal law, but you and other members of your community, and other Aboriginal communities throughout Australia, must understand Northern Territory law is the law that must be obeyed by everyone, including Aboriginal men like you who have grown up under traditional law," the judge said.
The DPP, Rex Wild QC, said yesterday that he was waiting for advice before deciding whether to appeal.
-- Jim Union Against Multi-culty
"Abolish Multi-Culty and String Up The Traitors!"
