Darkside Rainbow

Today’s post has nothing to do with GBLTQ issues and the world of gay and lesbian life, save for the fact that we all fit into a part of the larger world around us. Some days you have to forget about a preset blog topic and focus on something that deserves attention whether it’s part of your niche or not, and the world does not revolve around our issues. And more people in the world need to know about this, and I’m just disgusted and pissed off enough to be one of the people with something to say about it.

Girl provoked pedophile - judge - News.com.au

A PEDOPHILE who raped a 10-year-old girl will be free in just four months after a British judge said his victim had “dressed provocatively”. [...] The same judge caused uproar earlier this year by setting free another paedophile and telling him to give his victim money “to buy a nice new bicycle”.

In the latest case, Oxford Crown Court heard harrowing details of the assault on the 10-year-old. She was attacked in a park in South Oxfordshire by Fenn and his accomplice Darren Wright, 34, on October 14 last year.

Fenn removed all her clothes and raped her, then Wright took her to his home and sexually assaulted her.

Yet Judge Hall said the case was exceptional because the “young woman” had been wearing a frilly bra and thong. [...] “It is quite clear she is a very disturbed child and a very needy child and she is a sexually precocious child. She liked to dress provocatively,” the judge said.

“Did she look like she was 10? Certainly not. She looked 16.”

Excuse me? No, excuse the **** out of me? There are sections snipped out of that, but trust me, no, you are not reading that out of context. In truth the things I cut only make it look worse, not better, so you can pick your jaw up off the floor right now because yes. Yes, you did just read that. Yes, it did damned well happen. And yes, it is oh-so-very damned wrong.

I just…there are no words. No, there are many, many words, but I can’t say them here and I don’t think you want to see five or six paragraphs of mostly asterisks. It’s bad enough that the rape of adult women has been trivialized for decades with the “she was asking for it” defense, as if provocative clothing somehow gives their rapists justification for behaving like animals - but now this is being applied to a child?

I don’t care if a 10-year-old child is walking around in something from Victoria’s Secret’s most naughty line and soliciting blowjobs for ten bucks on a street corner; in that situation you never, ever say that the child was provoking any pedophilic acts towards her. What she is doing is expressing something very wrong in her home life, and you know what the correct response is? “Let’s get that child somewhere safe, put her in some decent clothing, and see if we can get some counseling for her to find out what’s behind this behavior.”

I don’t care if she looked sixteen or if she looked sixty, rape is still rape and it should not ever, ever be looked at as the fault of the victim. The fact that the victim is a child just makes it all the more heinous.

You’ll have to excuse my sputtering and incoherency. I’m just absolutely sickened and outraged by this entire situation - oh, sure, I could say it doesn’t affect me as it has to do with judiciary systems across the pond in a country that I’m in no way affiliated with, but damn it, that sort of thing affects everyone.

That sort of thing is a lesson to anyone who witnesses it: no matter what country you live in, no matter what sort of government you live under, do not sit by passively and let the decisions of your government, lawmakers, and law enforcers go past without having some part in them. Take part in your local politics; participate in elections when you can, speak out when you can not. Make your voice heard, even if it means taking a risk. At the very least keep yourself informed of what is going on around you and play your part in keeping people with this sort of moral compass (which is apparently severely skewed in direction) out of public offices. Criminal trial systems exist in order to punish those who perpetrate such unforgivable acts, and when they are punished inadequately, those of a similar bent may well think that it’s quite acceptable to pursue their criminal tendencies when they know they’ll get off with just a slap on the wrist. When the system fails, it’s up to the people under that system to speak out and demand the correction of its flaws.

And if you think it doesn’t have anything to do with you, think again. It does. You can stand by and say “I have nothing to say about this because it doesn’t directly affect me”, but what about when it’s you? What about when it’s an issue that affects you - whether you’re the next victim of a violent homophobic hate crime or same-sex rape? That’s topical to this blog, isn’t it. What if it is you, next? Or one of your friends, or someone in your community, or hey, a stranger you just happen to care about the plight of because you’re all standing under the same rainbow flag? And when people outside the community shrug and say “I have nothing to say, I’m not gay and it doesn’t directly affect me”…

Well. That makes it different, doesn’t it.

So I refuse to stand by and say that. Instead I’m saying read the story of this girl, and the unjust and inadequate punishment meted out to the men who assaulted her, and the close-minded and downright sick statements of the judge who presided over the proceedings. I’m telling anyone who reads this to be aware, and to spread the story. Speak out. Speak up. Speak for her, and even if you can do nothing else, make your voice heard.

Even if you’ve changed nothing in the sentencing of those men, you’ve made other people stop and think. You’ve made them consider the actions of that judge, and consider themselves in the light of his decision and his words. Maybe you made someone re-evaluate their way of thinking after recognizing something in themselves. Maybe you opened their eyes to something they didn’t understand before, and made them a better person.

Maybe not. Maybe me posting this won’t do a damned thing for anyone, anywhere.

But that doesn’t mean I’m going to keep my mouth shut just because it doesn’t involve me.

Because one day, something will. And who’s going to speak for me, for you, for whomever the victim might be, then?

pedophilia, paedophilia, keith fenn, darren wright, oxford crown court, judge julian hall, rape