Sunday, February 19, 2006

A Shocking Court Case

If anyone thinks our courts are bad. This has to be the worst verdict I have ever heard of. Italian court: Not a virgin? Sex crimes aren't as serious (hat tip blast furnace canada)

4 comments:

Auds said...

I saw this earlier in the week - it's really shocking.
She's only 14! She shouldn't have been having sex, consenual or not - but she should not have her sexual abuse legimatimised by a court in any way.

It's shameless that such a defence could even be conceived, let alone be ruled in favour of. Regardless of virginity, sexual abuse is a grevious crime against a person's dignity. How dare a court decide that this girl is less harmed, simply becuase she has had sex before.

I disagree with Mussolini's granddaughter - more women on the Supreme Court wouldn't neccessarily prevent such a decision - if it was culturally acceptable for any judges to make such a bizarre decision, women judges are not going to change that.

Simon said...

It seems to suggest that the Italians are backwards.

One of the ministers wore a t-shirt with one of the danish cartoons on it. I mean how thick can you get.

But you are right. I mean whether there was female judges on the Irish supmere court or not that would never happen. Nowadays anyway.

Anonymous said...

I worked in Italy some years ago (TEFL, what else?) in the profound south. The sister of one of my students who'd had a child out of wedlock and in her teens was a virtual shut in due to the less than enlightened view generally taken of her predicament.

Auds, no offence, but your comment is a disaster area.

Not least: a society in which there were more women on the Italian Supreme Court would be unlikely to be a society in which is was culturally acceptable for judges to make such bizarre decisions.

KnackeredKaz said...

I'm only seeing this now...that's a disgrace! I'm actually really angry about that! No wonder less and less rape victims are coming forward if this is the support they get in court.

The Italian Supreme Court should be ashamed of itself