Disgraced Queensland Crown Prosecutor Steve Carter. [source: ABC News]
For those who don’t get Aussie TV, the 7:30 Report last night covered the aftermath of the case of the gang rape dubbed “naughty” and “childish experimentation”[1] by the Queensland Crown Prosecutor involved, Steve Carter. The 7:30 Report interviewed Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.
Carter has now been stood down from duty pending further investigation. Not only did he infantilise the perpetrators, dismiss the seriousness (and the existence) of the gang rape, bluster that consent was given “in a non-legal sense”, and blame the child victim, but he didn’t even bother to prepare a victim impact statement – though the intellectually disabled girl contracted an STD and had to be removed altogether from her community, where her rapists still wander free.
Video is available of the interview here at the ABC. I’m not sure whether they’ll archive it – that’s just the current page.
Child Safety failed rape victim: Bligh
The Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has conceded that the Child Safety Department failed an Aboriginal child who was pack raped by nine men in Cape York. She admitted the Department let the girl down by removing her from her foster family in Cairns and sending her back to the Aboriginal community where she had previously been sexually assaulted.
[1] triggers all over the place in this link, especially in the comments.
[...] There’s no reason to assume that only American soldiers and mercenaries are raping civilians and colleagues (although the US Army’s loosening of recruitment criteria in order to have sufficient troops on the ground does mean that more rapists with previous convictions are slipping through their net than in other forces). Demographically it’s almost inevitable that there are rapists in the British, Australian and other military forces occupying Iraq as well. It beggars belief that no other prosecutable rapes have occurred – so why aren’t they being properly investigated and prosecuted by the military under martial law? Or speedily passed on to civilian prosecutors, not all of whom can be so callous and incompetent as Mr Carter? [...]
Casey linked to a partial trial transcript on comments at LP. In the transcript Mr Carter tqalks about the rapists not bothering with the “legal niceties of consent”. Not doing a very good job of arguing my case today because I am literally shaking with rage.