Australia: Up to 50 teens could face sex offenders register after receiving video of alleged rape
Up to 50 teenagers who were sent a video of a 15-year-old boy allegedly raping an unconscious girl could be placed on a sex offenders register if convicted for possession of child pornography, a child cyber safety expert says.
NSW Police have opened an investigation into the alleged rape of the teenage girl who had passed out drunk at a house party in Sydney’s eastern suburbs earlier this month.
Another 15-year-old boy, who police have also charged, filmed the alleged rape on his mobile phone and distributed it to at least 50 other teenagers, News Corp reported.
He yesterday appeared in Sydney’s Children’s Court charged with the production and distribution of child abuse.
Former police officer and a school consultant on cyber safety, Susan McLean, said the alleged incident may have many severe legal implications for all parties.
“Rape is [still the more serious offence], and I think there is multiple facets to this whole incident,” she said.
“There is the initial rape, and that sexual assault there. There’s the fact the alleged perpetrator of the rape asked his mate to film it. There’s the agreement of the mate to allegedly film it, and then of course there’s the sharing allegedly of that footage.”
Ms McLean said the laws around child pornography and recording and distribution of abuse did not preclude teenagers from harsh sentences.
“Ten is the age of legal liability in Australia, so once they’re over the age of 10, it means that they’re legally accountable for their actions,” Ms McLean said.
“When a penalty is imposed, the magistrate or the judge must take into account the whole situation — the criminal background of the offender, if there is any, remorse, regret, impact on the victim.
“I would say this is at the higher end of the impact on the victim — I would suggest that there would be jail served in this.”
Many young people unaware of legal consequences
It is understood police were first alerted to the alleged incident by teachers at Sydney’s prestigious Cranbrook School after the video was distributed to up to 50 teenagers.
In an email obtained by the ABC, the school’s headmaster, Nicholas Sampson, reassured parents a “serious incident” receiving media attention did not occur on school grounds.
“As I am sure you will understand, we are not able to disclose further details at this stage, both because this is a police matter concerning a student under the age of 18 and because of our pastoral responsibilities for all our students,” the email read.
Media player: “Space” to play, “M” to mute, “left” and “right” to seek.
Although those who received the video of the alleged rape may not have been directly involved in filming it, Ms McLean said the legislation was clear.
“One of the issues with a conviction for possession of child pornography, making child pornography or transmission of it is the fact that you are placed on the sex offenders register,” she said.
“That’s written in legislation. There is no discretion for that.”
She said many young people do not realise they can be in breach of the law just by receiving prohibited material.
“When I work with young people in schools, we talk about the fact if they’re sent this unsolicited, they need to come forward immediately and speak up, which, of course, would negate possession charges.
“What tends to happen in these situations is [the illicit material] is shared widely, that is transmission of and possession of child pornography.
“They have [committed an offence] because they are in possession of something that would be deemed to be child pornography.”
Come on, really? Yes, someone should be punished but everyone who viewed it?
The Florida law is the same in the “can be in breach of the law just by receiving prohibited material” portion. The FDLE investigator said the minute it arrived on my computer, I was guilty. I asked what if I didn’t know it had downloaded. He said the minute I realized it I was guilty, regardless of what I did with it. These are the kind of laws that I really hate. It seems with sex crimes, intent doesn’t matter, and the establishment of guilt is removed from the DA and is replaced with the establishment of innocence being handed to the defendant.
WHL- you are correct and I agree. I tell my students all the time that we are now in a “War on Sex” very similar to the War on Drugs. And they were both orchestrated using the same propaganda methods…..it starts by using the “If it saves just one child….”
Very true Karen. What makes the “War on Sex” different and worse than the war on drugs is that the same society that wants to punish us for life is the society that promotes and enjoys sexual immorality, baiting people along right to the edge.
Today our prime-time tv shows have nudity and some of the dialogues are extremely sexual, all uncensored and before 9:00 PM. Movies glorify sex, some commercials are very sexual, magazine ads, books, movies, all of it sexual in nature. The malls are pushing sexually explicit ads and clothing to young pre-teen girls, extremely tight clothes with words like “hot” printed across their rear ends. And when someone is baited to the edge and then crosses it, this same society wants to crucify them.
I am not justifying my or anyone’s behavior; I was wrong in the things I was doing. But the hypocrisy of our society and especially our legislatures in nauseating.