NSW: Gang rape sentence sparks fresh community unease
An unprecedented 55-year sentence, with a 40-year non-parole period, imposed on a gangrapist looks set to be as divisive as the horrendous crimes which have gripped Sydneyfor almost two years. GAVIN LOWER examines the aftermath.
By Gavin Lower
SYDNEY, Aug 16 AAP - Is the 55-year jail sentence imposed on the leader of a rape gangas shocking as the crime?
Criminologist Mark Findlay says it is.
The young women who were his victims say justice has been done.
Politicians say well done Judge, the sentence reflects community expectation.
The gang rapist and his family say he's innocent.
Sections of the community are celebrating.
Lawyers, psychologists, commentators and just about anyone with an opinion is expressingit in the aftermath of District Court Judge Michael Finnane's decision.
Yesterday he imposed the sentence on a 20-year-old man he found to be the ringleaderof a series of vicious gang rapes in Sydney's western suburbs.
The severity of it - many murderers get far less - has raised alarm in legal circlesthat it is disproportionate, and that a new benchmark has been set.
On those questions the debate is just beginning.
On other questions the debate has been raging for over a year.
Should the offender in this case and others who have committed similar crimes and areawaiting sentencing be named?
Many of those charged over gang rape were juveniles when they committed their crimes.
Juveniles in criminal proceedings cannot be named. However a judge has the discretionto allow their identification when they are sentenced if it is in the interests of justice.
It's a tough call for any judge.
NSW Premier Bob Carr has called for the rapists to be named, saying the community deservedto know who committed such horrific crimes.
If necessary, he would change the law to make it possible.
Justice Finnane told the NSW District Court he saw no reason in law for the adult perpetratorsof gang rapes not to be named.
The 20-year-old sentenced this week cannot be named yet because his brother - a juvenile- is a co-offender and has not yet been sentenced for his part in two of the attacks onteenage girls. He will learn his fate next month.
The gang leader's barrister, Terry Healey, has indicated an appeal against the 55-yearsentence will be lodged.
Judge Finnane has already sentenced two gang rapists - Belal Hajeid, 20, to 23 yearswith a non-parole period of 15 years and Mahmoud Chami, 20, to 18 years with a non-paroleperiod of 10 years.
Judge Finnane said neither he nor his colleagues had heard of such crimes against women,apart from during war-time social breakdowns.
Sydney first became aware that something evil was lurking in its midst in August lastyear when reports emerged of gangs of youths attacking and raping young women.
Paradoxically, they took place during August and September 2000, just as Sydney wasimmersing itself in the bonhomie of the Olympics.
Fourteen men of Lebanese Muslim background, some related to each other, have been convictedat trial or pleaded guilty to the attacks on seven teenage girls in Sydney's south-westernsuburbs.
The crimes shocked the city and the country and sparked a rise in ethnic tensions withrevelations the attackers made racial slurs against their victims.
During one rape a victim was told she would be "fucked Leb style" and was called "an Aussie pig".
Sydney's Lebanese Muslim community condemned the attacks but reported receiving deaththreats and warnings that their women would be targeted for rape.
The cases contributed to an intense debate over links between ethnicity and crime andprompted a forum of ethnic community leaders which demanded an end to such linkages.
Judge Finnane remarked after sentencing two of the offenders that Australia was indanger of losing its reputation as a tolerant country.
"To some extent this intolerance I think has been fostered by our political leaderswho make statements at times that seem to promote intolerance," he said.
"There's no place in our community for that intolerance."
Premier Carr was criticised for insisting that police use ethnic descriptions of offendersif they felt it would lead to an arrest.
The cases attracted more headlines during an outcry over lenient sentences handed downby NSW District Judge Megan Latham last year against two brothers and another teenagerover the gang rape of two 16-year-old girls.
The girls had been taken to a house in Villawood, in Sydney's south-west, and rapedafter they had been left stranded at a train station and accepted an offer of a ride homefrom a group of men.
Community outcry over the sentences, up to six years for the brothers and 18 monthsfor the other man, prompted the government to increase the maximum penalty for gang rapefrom 20 years to life imprisonment.
The sentences were increased on appeal.
The gang rapists have been disowned by their community with leaders saying those whocommitted a crime beyond imaginable human behaviour should be put away and the key thrownaway.
If it had occurred in Lebanon, they would be put to death.
AAP gl/arb/jc g
KEYWORD: GANG RAPE BACKGROUNDER
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