An Australian judge has incurred the wrath of child protection and gay rights advocates after stating that incest and pedophilia may no longer be considered taboo – just as gay relationships are now more accepted than they were in the 1950s and 60s.
District Court Judge Garry Neilson was recorded as saying that
sexual contact between adults and children or siblings may no
longer be regarded by society as “unnatural” or
“taboo.”
Just as same-sex relationships were once considered socially
unacceptable, “a jury might find nothing untoward in the
advance of a brother towards his sister once she had sexually
matured, had sexual relationships with other men and was now
‘available,' not having [a] sexual partner,” he said, as
quoted by Australia’s Fairfax Media.
Neilson said that the primary reason for incest still being a
crime is the high risk of genetic abnormalities in any children
born as a result of the relationships.
“But even that falls away to an extent [because] there is
such ease of contraception and ready access to abortion,” he
said.
He made the comments in April, in the case of a 58-year-old man
charged with repeatedly raping his younger sister in 1981 in west
Sydney.
The man pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting her when she was 10
or 11 years old in 1973 or 1974, but pleaded not guilty to the
1981 charges when she was 18 and he was 26.
The judge was also found to have given a 55-year-old rapist a
lighter sentence because he did not ejaculate inside his young
niece or “treat her roughly.” She was 15 and 16 when she
was raped in 2007 and 2008.
“His Honor took a favorable view of the most serious offense,
count five, because there had been no ejaculation,” Appeal
Court Justices Lucy McCallum, Monika Schmidt, and Derek Price
wrote in their appeal ruling in March 2013, Australia’s Daily
Telegraph reported.
Hetty Johnston – founder of Australian child sexual assault
charity Braveheats – wrote to New South Wales Attorney-General
Brad Hazzard, calling for Judge Neilson’s suspension.
“It is just the most outrageous statement,” Johnston
told the Telegraph. “What sort of decisions has he been
making? I think the community deserves to be reassured that this
is not a view that is shared among the judiciary.”
Dr. Cathy Kezelman, president of Adults Surviving Child Abuse,
told Fairfax Radio Network that Neilson's comments were archaic
and “beyond belief.”
She said that profound damage is inflicted upon children when
family lines are crossed in incest cases.
“It's finally been spoken about. But attitudes do need to
shift. There are still a lot of myths, still a lot of entrenched,
very damaging beliefs and that's why we need to speak out about
it, attack those myths and educate people, so we're not hearing
these outrageous statements,” she said, adding that the
attorney-general needs to investigate the issue and that it is
necessary to look at the “caliber and awareness” of judges.
Jed Horne, the policy and project officer of the New South Wales
Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, told Australia's Star Observer that
“the comments attributed to the judge are completely
unacceptable.”
“Not only do they make a highly offensive comparison between
being gay and sexual offences, but they are an affront to members
of the community which have experienced sexual abuse in their
lives,” he said.