Is the technology a contributing factor here?
This after all not an isolated incident is it?
A teenage schoolgirl tonight remained in a Victorian hospital after she and a friend were sexually assaulted by a group of men who filmed the attack on a mobile phone.
The two teenagers, both aged 15, were sitting on a footpath outside a building in Geelong, south-west of Melbourne, at about 11.50pm (AEST) on Saturday, when they were approached by five men.
Detective Acting Inspector Simon Clemence said one of the men grabbed one of the girls by the arm and pulled her away from her friend.“He then took her to one side and started kissing her against her will,” Mr Clemence said.
“Another two of the males then held the other girl on the ground and one of them digitally raped her,” he said.
“While this was happening one of the males, we believe, was taking video footage of the attack on his mobile phone.” (source)
As the father of a daughter I get a shiver down my spine when ever I read about this sort of brutish behaviour and my blood boils to think that these scumbags will never be adequately punished should they actually be convicted of their crimes.
“Both girls are extremely traumatised by this [attack],” he said.
“The girl who was subject to the [digital rape] was still in hospital with internal injuries.”
“This was an extremely brazen attack on two defenceless schoolgirls.
“These five males have acted with a pack mentality. They’ve displayed an attitude towards women that is absolutely atrocious.” (source)
Perhaps they should be treated like a pack of rabid dogs, hunted down and then shot. The description offered of the two main offenders is quite worrying though.
We have some very good footage of the offenders, it shows them entering the nightclub,” Mr Clemence said.
One of the men is described as approximately 180cm tall, with an olive complexion, slicked-back dark coloured hair, wearing a blue striped top and jeans.
The other man is described as having an olive complexion, spiky dark hair and wearing a dark coloured long-sleeved top and jeans.(source)
Now I won’t cast any aspersions on any ethnic group here but I can’t hep but jump to certain conclusions from the description of these men.
Perhaps it is time for a new offence to be added to the statute books; “internet humiliation” making the publishing of footage, such as theses scumbags took, an indictable offence.
Ten years on top of any sentence for the actual assault should be a deterrent. If it does not deter at least it would keep them locked up for a very long time.
Update
According to the latest report in the Age the men are being interviewed by police but no names or details of the suspects have been released. I have added the picture above of the suspects entering the nightclub as well.
Check out This post at Crusader Rabbit about sexual assaults in European cites for some perspective on how “multiculturalism” is not always so wonderful warm and cuddly .
A further Update
A nod to Keith for this securty film image of two of the suspects as published in The Hereld Sun. I wonder if the chap in the striped shirt with the mobile phone to his ear was the “cameraman” or one of the actual attackers?
Filed under: Law, the Law | Tagged: in the news
Iain,
You ask whether the technology is contributing. I presume by technology you mean mobile phones that can film.
I would have thought that the filming is consistent with why many sexual offences occur. It is about degrading and humiliating the victim; filming it is just part of the process.
A similar argument is often made by opponents of guns who say that the guns cause or assist gun crime. While there is a logical causation – you can’t commit a gun crime without a gun – put too forcefully it ignores personal responsibility for the crime.
Rudi
You are right Rudi I am referring to Phones that can film.
And I suppose that in the same way that we treat armed robbery more harshly under the law then so to we should treat assaults that are filmed and posted on the Internet. I do appreciate the parallels with the guns in crime argument but I am suggesting as this sort of thing is at present not covered by the law that it is time that it was.
Iain, to clarify, when you say the technology is a contributing factor, you mean that video-phones are increasing the levels of sexual attacks?
Your headline ‘mobile phone crime’ seems to suggest this.
It’s a sex crime, that someone filmed on a phone. I don’t think theres any teleological connection between the two events. If there is any causal link to be found, the mobile phone filming was a result of the attack, not the other way around.
Wouldn’t you think that the morons who are filming it are making themselves more likely to be caught?
I do think you have a point in that there should be a seperate offence for the filming of such acts, though are you sure there isn’t one already?
Hi Cooper,
It used to be the case that the ability to take video footage of anything required specialised equipment but now anyone can have the toy in his or her pocket.
I am not suggesting that this technology has caused an increase in the number of sex attacks but that it has made it possible for these scrotes to humiliate and degrade their victims on another level entirely.
As far as I know there is no provision in the criminal code to cover this sort of thing. Although it has been suggested to me that in this case child pornography laws could be invoked because the girls were only 15 but that may well be a stretch legally.
I agree this is a shocking crime that should attract a severe penalty as a deterrent.
Why do you mention the fact that they may come from an ethnic group Iain? Are you not also from an ethnic group?
Doesn’t that ethnic group (English migrants) also commit violent crime and sexual assault?
Do you have and evidence that people with olive skin and black hair are more likely to commit these kinds of crimes?
If you don’t, then for what reason is this a relevant point in your post?
As we both know there have been some very high profile incedents in the last few years where this has in fact been the case, and we also know that some cultures have a rather bad reputation when it comes to the way that they view women who are not from their own faith tradition.
Legislators have recognised that the ease of filming people has caused legal problems. The Standing Committee of Attorney Generals in August 2005 put out a discussion paper on the issue (see here http://www.ag.gov.au/agd/WWW/rwpattach.nsf/VAP/(CFD7369FCAE9B8F32F341DBE097801FF)~8+AugInternetPhotosFinalPaperAugust05.pdf/$file/8+AugInternetPhotosFinalPaperAugust05.pdf).
In Victoria there have been recent cases of men charged with filming up the skirts of woman at the tennis and on trams. I recall, but an not sure my recollection is correct, that they were prosecuted under laws relating to stalking and public nuisance and found guilty. Filming a sexual assault would be a factor in sentencing supporting longer imprisonment.
Iain your claim that you are not casting aspersion was a little cute. It is like me saying that I won’t say that person X is an idiot but I can’t help jump to that conclusion! It leaves no doubt methinks the person is an idiot and akwardly feigns politeness. Say what you mean.
Iain,
I think you have missed the question in Craig’s post. No-one is doubting that people with olive complexions and black hair commit crimes. The question Craig asked is whether “they” are MORE LIKELY to commit crimes than people without olive complexions and black hair.
I look forward to your answer, especially given the rise of solarium usage in Australia and the availability of black hair dye. Sounds like we could experience a crime wave unless some serious bleaching takes place soon!
Unless of course by olive complexion and black hair is a euphamism for a specific ethnic group – if so, what ethnic group?
Rudi
Rudi
You are a smart chap so you can draw your own conclusions about the ethnicity of this gang of scumbags
Personally I have some suspicions that I have hinted at but will say no more without more proof I know the game that you are playing here so I will reserve my answer till I know more.
Come on Iain, don’t fence sit. What are you afraid of? Not lefties I hope!!
Rudi, I think Iain is talking about bikies.
All that time riding Harley’s makes their skin brown and they wear black helmets.
I think he might be concerned about offending his local Hells Angels. After all they seem to commit large amounts of the worst types of crime.
If it is bikies, I think he has a point. If he is talking about Australians with a Middle Eastern back ground, then he should back it up with facts or be accused of racism.
It must be bikies.
Time for some larger prisons I think.
These animals need to be put away for a long time.
Iain,
I am sorry you think I am am playing a game. I don’t know the ethnicity of the group – they could be Italian, Greeks, Croats, Spaniards, Lebanese, Jordanians, Iraqis, west coast Irish on holidays, Australians etc – and I am not trying to trick you.
I dislike people talking out the side of their mouths especialy on race and ethnicity. I am probably unduly sensitive; I’ve known black South Africans to be killed where people have suspected a black African must have done something, although later with more information that was not the case.
They with the dark complexions and black hair may well be Muslims (I think that is what you are trying to say) but you don’t know that at this stage so can’t we wait until they are identified before running that line? (On that note, papers are reporthing they have gone to the police and so no doubt all will be revealed soon.)
Rudi.
Craigy,
Bikies are not an ethnic group, but you know that anyway don’t you?
Rudi
Rudi
You have astutely understood why I am unwilling to commit myself here. Some of my commentators are very willing to go the “gotcha” and as a result I am rather cagey about such things.
Cheers
Ps your typo has been fixed
BTW Do you have a link to the reports you talk about?
Iain,
Thanks for fixing my typo.
Have a look at
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2007/05/18/3827_news.html
or google news “mobile phone geelong” and look at recent articles.
Rudi.
They sound like melanin-rich Swedes to me.
Going back to the earlier point about the use of the mobile phones, I think Rudi is spot on. The filming of the attack is entirely consistent with the known psychology of sexual attacks – exertion of power, debasement and humiliation. It’d be misleading to think that camera-having mobile phones somehow causes heinous attacks like this. Other attacks however, like those where someone filmed up a woman’s skirt, might be facilitated by such covert devices, but that’s not the issue here.
Iain, games aside, your tacit claim that Islam was involved here (I refer to this: …the way that they view women who are not from their own faith tradition.) has no basis to it. The descriptions don’t make them Muslims any more than my physical description makes me Christian.
Jangari
Although I am not prepared to say so definitively I have seen the security video posted on the age website and although it is fuzzy and fleeting they don’t look like Anglo boys to me.
Now having already deleted two comments from Craigy accusing me of racism (which contravene my comments policy)I will continue to keep my powder dry until I can be sure.
Fair enough?
I’m not famous for mincing words.
Sweden, France, Norway and Denmark have all experienced huge increases in rapes by muslim immigrants against the women of those countries.
To expect that muslim youths in Australia would have any better attitudes towards women beggars belief–is there something in our water, perhaps that moderates their behaviour?
And before the likes of craigy and jangari start demanding links and statistics, i’ll say this: go do your own work, as I have.
Interesting that your proposal to criminalise the propagation of the resulting video (which I agree with) would probably have seen the major TV networks (in the US) prosecuted for showing the video made by the Virginia Tech killer.
Hi fang
any release of the perp’s name?
I have a bottle of wine here that says the perp is NOT a white Anglo-Saxon.
(Just playing the odds.)
You and your friends have shown your true colors here Iain, I don’t need to say what you are, like you I will keep my powder dry and the readers here can clearly see what you think.
Your weakness in not posting my comments shows just how poor your arguments are.
As for your comments policy, your friends break the rules and you let it go. It is no suprise that Keith supports your hate of your fellow Australians.
Craigy
I don’t know if you kept a copy of the things you said but I strangely resent being told that I should be wearing KKK robes. Now Just accept that you crossed the line and move on. You did the same thing when we were discussing indigenous matters. As I see it there is a big difference between calling a spade a spade and denouncing all of the tools in the garden shed.
As for my “friends” getting more latitude they earn it by pulling their heads in a bit when I ask them to. Now as you have done this before your latitude has been used up.
The only group of my fellow Australians that I hate are the sort of scumbags who would sexually assult underage girls and add insult to injury by filming thier crime and posting it on the net.
Oh come on Iain, you have now told your readers the worst of what I said in my SNIPPED comment, why not put it up and let them shoot it down if I am so wrong.
Or did I get to close to the truth about you and your friends and the way you feel about anyone with olive skin and dark hair.
Show some spine Iain.
“The only group of my fellow Australians that I hate are the sort of scumbags who would sexually assult underage girls and add insult to injury by filming thier crime and posting it on the net.”
And the same goes for me.
NOT that I regard such people as “fellow Australians”.
And for your information craigy, among my friends are people with olive skin and dark hair, BLACK skin and crinkly grey (once black) hair, fair skin, blue eyes and blonde hair.
They have one thing in common though–they respect the rule of law and they don’t gang-rape women.
Guess that makes me a “racist” by your strange and twisted standards, eh?
And by the way; on my blog I just published something in praise of the Maltese people. (they have olive skin and black hair)
So I must be an undercover racist, eh?
And below that, a post pointing out exactly what I think of you and your ilk–CR isn’t constrained by the same wish not to offend the host as I am in comments here. You’re welcome to drop in and read it.
Craigy
I will not put up your comments for the reasons already stated.
Future comments from you will be moderated if you continue with your current line.
I have no time at all for the leftist “you must be racist because you denounce a group of scumbags and mention or speculate about their ethnicity” sort of argument.
I have made it clear that my revulsion is for the behaviour and not the race in fact I was just as hard on the previous case where a girl was raped and her abuse was filmed and that group of scrotes were in fact not “olive skinned ” at all.
“Now I won’t cast any aspersions on any ethnic group here but I can’t help but jump to certain conclusions from the description of these men.” Iain Hall
Well Keith, maybe you should explain to Iain why he shouldn’t jump to conclusions about people based on their skin colour.
Hung by your own words Iain.
Care to change your blog post.
It would make you look better, and you could then pretend you didn’t say it and I am just a troll.
….just trying to be helpful…
ok craigy, since you won’t address the real issues here:
(this is posted in more detail on CR)
”
“In more and more cities across the continent, non-Muslims are being harassed, robbed, mugged, raped, stabbed and even killed by Muslims, yet EU leaders continue their quest to merge Europe and the Arab world by making it easier for Muslims to enter and settle in Europe.”
“…It is hardly accidental that while Muslims make up about ten percent of the population in France, they make up an estimated seventy percent of French prison inmates.”
link:
“In one of the rare instances where Swedish media actually revealed the truth, newspaper Aftonbladet reported several years ago that 9 out of 10 of the most criminal ethnic groups in Sweden came from Muslim countries.”
“The War against Swedes”
“Resident aliens from Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia dominate the group of rape suspects. Lawyer Ann Christine Hjelm found that 85 per cent of the convicted rapists were born on foreign soil or by foreign parents. And it’s not just Sweden. The number of rapes committed by Muslim immigrants in Western nations is so extremely high that it is difficult to view these rapes only as random acts of individuals. It resembles warfare. ”
link:
Visit CR and follow the links. Jumping to conclusions about people based on their ethnicity appears to be perfectly reasonable for anybody with two functioning brain cells.
And while you’re at it, I’d appreciate an apology for suggesting that I’m racist. After all, based on your multiculti utterances I could reasonably assume that you’re all in favour of genocide, given the historical record of lefty collectivist regimes. But I refrain.
and that long comment ends my engagement with a troll in someone else’s blog. Feel free to visit CR and leave a comment, if you can stand the heat of that particular kitchen.
Craigy
Your comments will continue to be welcome here but as you failed to heed my warnings and persisted with the accusation that I am a racist your comments will have to get through moderation first.
Keith and Iain.
Read this and apologise.
http://ffasa.org/hpages.asp?PageID=29
Read it, and if that is the strongest evidence that you can bring you have a rather weak case.
The matter at hand and the main focus of this post is gang or multi offender sexual assault, which is a particular subset of all sexual assaults. How about you seek some Stats on that?
Now the main point that I wanted to make with this post is that I think that it is despicable that offenders should add that extra level of degradation to their victims by filming their crime. So what are your thoughts on that Craigy? Don’t you think that such behaviour deserves to be covered by its own offence under the criminal code?