aussie
03-14-02, 07:04AM
GANG rapists have been they can expect a hefty prison sentence. The warning came as a 61-page judgment yesterday from the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal.
The decision doubled – and in one case almost trebled – the original sentences handed down to three youths involved in a four-hour gang rape of two 16-year-old girls who were threatened at knife point and subjected to at least six death threats.
The three appeal court judges found the original sentencing judge, Megan Latham, in the District Court, had erred and that the sentences were manifestly inadequate.
One of the victims later told of a racial element to the crime, saying the men, of Lebanese extraction, had told them they deserved their fate because they [the victims] were Australian.
The youths, who were 16 and 19 at the time, had originally been sentenced to between three and six years' jail.
The appeal court increased the sentences to up to a maximum of 14 years' jail, with minimum terms of nine and 10 years.
"[The victims] were subjected to an horrific, uninvited, unprovoked and sustained series of sexual assaults of a most degrading kind . . . A knife was produced on a number of separate occasions by two of the offenders and brandished in a way which could only have provoked in the victims fear of death or mutilation," the judgment said.
So what do you think guys is the new sentences tough enough? Or do you think something tougher is warranted?
The decision doubled – and in one case almost trebled – the original sentences handed down to three youths involved in a four-hour gang rape of two 16-year-old girls who were threatened at knife point and subjected to at least six death threats.
The three appeal court judges found the original sentencing judge, Megan Latham, in the District Court, had erred and that the sentences were manifestly inadequate.
One of the victims later told of a racial element to the crime, saying the men, of Lebanese extraction, had told them they deserved their fate because they [the victims] were Australian.
The youths, who were 16 and 19 at the time, had originally been sentenced to between three and six years' jail.
The appeal court increased the sentences to up to a maximum of 14 years' jail, with minimum terms of nine and 10 years.
"[The victims] were subjected to an horrific, uninvited, unprovoked and sustained series of sexual assaults of a most degrading kind . . . A knife was produced on a number of separate occasions by two of the offenders and brandished in a way which could only have provoked in the victims fear of death or mutilation," the judgment said.
So what do you think guys is the new sentences tough enough? Or do you think something tougher is warranted?