IF it is true that a judge spared a young rapist a jail sentence because of a plea for leniency by the Christian parents of a seven-year-old rape victim, then the law is a far bigger ass than we ever imagined.
Judge Adrian Smith
From all the media reports I have read, it certainly appears to be the case that Judge Adrian Smith was swayed by the victim’s parents’ apparent piety. They told the judge their Christian religion had enabled them to forgive their son’s attacker for his crimes, and wanted the judge to follow suit.
The judge spared the teenager a custodial sentence, and the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, went on to kidnap and rape a five-year-old lad just over a week later.
Amid protests from prosecutors and police, the rapist was given a three-year community rehabilitation order for the first attack in which he admitted one charge of causing a child to engage in sexual activity and one of rape.
But the Manchester Evening News established that the boy asked for three other charges of engaging in sexual activity, which related to another child, to be taken into consideration.
After being spared a custodial sentence, he then lured a five-year-old boy from the front of his home and raped him at a house nearby.
According to the Mail, during his ordeal, the terrified victim was sexually abused before being given a Star Wars light sabre toy as a “reward” for keeping quiet.
He later had to undergo injections to prevent a possible HIV infection.
This week the attacker was brought before a different judge and was given an indefinite jail term for public protection.
He admitted child abduction, rape, kidnap with intent to commit a sexual offence and attempted rape and his previous community sentence was revoked.
He will serve a minimum of three years and four months before being considered for parole. But Judge Peter Lakin warned him: ‘
No-one can say when it will be safe for you to be released. The offences you have committed are deeply disturbing and very serious. In my judgment you are a devious and manipulative young man with an unhealthy and completely unacceptable sexual interest in young boys.
HAT TIP Ian
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
November 12th, 2009 at 10:41 am
I remain implacably opposed to this populist nonsense about victims being able to read “statements” in court before sentencing, and here is a good example of why this is such a profoundly stupid idea. Judges need to make decisions based upon law and the facts before them, guided by expert advice and their own experience, and not influenced by emotional pleas from people who have their own personal agenda.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Unbelievable! It just shows how completely messed up and utterly irrational people get when they have been subjected to indoctrination and become blinded by ‘faith’. The parents of the first victim will have to live with the fact that their personal religious beliefs were in no small part responsible for the second victim’s fate. They should be ashamed.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Hear, hear, Barrie.
I hope the first victim’s parents are suitably pleased with themselves.
What’s the rape and abuse of other people’s children, compared to the opportunity of showing off your xtian piety in public?
I also find the parents’ idea that they can forgive the attacker on their daughter’s behalf to be somewhat skewed.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:33 am
As a parent, I’m appalled.
How dare they influence sentencing based on THEIR forgiveness of a crime against someone else.
These parents have really let their child down.
It beggars belief.
November 12th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Plus, it also shows how bankrupt the xtian philosophy of forgiveness is.
Did they seriously think that their forgiving the attacker would somehow transform said individual? The other point is why the judge didn’t order psychiatric profiling of the boy to be carried out.
I wonder what the daily Mail’s not-enough-xtian-values-in-our-society take on this will be?
November 12th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Tim – the Daily Hate Mail will ignore it, as they usually do when something or someone throws a spanner into their puritanical thinking.
November 12th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Very well said Barrie! What kind of perverted mind can forgive anybody who rapes their child and allows them to walk free of jail. I hope these loony christian parents are racked with guilt. Another example of how religion poisons everything.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Christianity should come with a public health warning. Maybe our pious government can be persuaded (haha) to warn us of the dangers of practising this religion, as they warn us about salmonella in eggs etc. Come to think of it, Christianity is like a bad egg.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Strictly speaking, the victim didn’t get a chance to read a ’statement’ – his parents did, and there’s the problem!
On the other hand, maybe that victim has a case against his parents, and any half awake judge should have ensured he had an independent solicitor to bring it or was made a ward of court in order to protect the poor sod from bampot parents who don’t act in his best interest.
Of course, curiously this never seems to happen when the bampots are ‘respectable Christians’, as opposed to, say, someone with an unusual but not dangerous lifestyle the likes of the Daily Mail might not approve of!
November 12th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I note that comments on the daily heil website are not active for this story, but are for a woman who caught her husband [by pretending to be a teenager via chat] trying to pick up underage teenagers on-line and then told the police… double standards, but what can you expact from that rag?
IHO the judge simply did not do his job, to protect the public, in this case. On another note, I used to get grounded for not doing my home work, what the fuck were the parents of the offender doing letting him out unsupervised after raping other children?
November 12th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
If anyone had raped my daughter, especially at that age, (and I do have a daughter) I wouldn’t be asking for forgiveness for him and I don’t think I would be looking to our so called “justice system” to sort it out. I think I would want to “reason” with him. The comments by others about religion screwing up parents or others minds gets it right. Then this rapist moves on to strike other times.
November 12th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
The parents couldn’t have just forgiven the rapist and then said, “Well, too bad you’re in this legal mess now, we’ll pray for you…”?
Even if you believe in Christianity, there’s that whole concept of “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and render unto God what is God’s…”, so there’s not even a good religious reason for them to have expected to tell the judge how to rule in this case.
Unless you believe in mixing church and state. I’m over in America, y’all, I don’t know how well y’all separate the two over in the uk, but we still have separation of church and state…for now…
November 12th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
This case may be the strongest proof to date that Anointianity (Greek: Khristianismos) is a mindcrippling form of insanity.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
“The absurdity of the doctrine known as ‘The Fall of Man,’ gave birth to that other absurdity known as ‘The Atonement.’ So that now it is insisted that, as we are rightfully charged with sin of someone else, we can rightfully be credited with the virtues of another.” (Robert Ingersoll, Ingersoll’s Works, Vol. 2, p. 370)
November 13th, 2009 at 1:23 am
“In my judgment you are a devious and manipulative young man with an unhealthy and completely unacceptable sexual interest in young boys.”
Should not the clergy, who hide behind the protective skirt of the mother catholic church, receive at the very least the same sentence ?….or worse as they are in a position of trust.