Boredom, drugs blamed for sexual assault | Australia

Boredom, drugs blamed for sexual assault

Boredom, overcrowded houses, drug use and pornography created the circumstances in which an 11-year-old boy was sexually assaulted by two adults and three juveniles at a remote Aboriginal community, a court heard.
The attacks took place at two houses and a swimming hole at Maningrida, 500 kilometres east of Darwin, between April and May last year. The boy was anally penetrated twice and fondled while he lay on the floor during the screening of a pornographic DVD at one of the houses.
The same night he was orally penetrated and fondled while the youngest of the offenders, then aged 13, lay on top of the child and unsuccessfully attempted to penetrate him.

Later that month the child was sexually abused again.

At the time of the attacks the offenders were aged 19, 18, 16, 15 and 13.

Defence lawyer Greg Smith referred to a psychological report during sentencing submissions in the Northern Territory Supreme Court in Darwin on Tuesday.

"What he (the psychologist) has noted was the problems of overcrowding, boredom and the frustration, a certain sense of helplessness that exists," he said.

"(With young people) resorting to the use of cannabis and the viewing of pornographic DVDs and that all of these things together appears to provide the explanation for this behaviour."

Mr Smith said his client, who cannot be named because of his age, was unable to say his date of birth and had given up cannabis because "it made me do bad things".

"There does appear to have been a recognition in the Maningrida community coming out of this matter and perhaps even further matters such as the intervention that something had to be done to change circumstances in the community," Mr Smith said.

He asked the court to consider a suspended sentence for his client, who said he never wanted to have sex again.

Justice Trevor Riley replied: "The concern I have ... is the seriousness of the offending and that a wholly suspended sentence is not an adequate response."

Claevon Cooper, 20, has pleaded guilty to three of the eight charges against the group, including sexual intercourse with a child under 16.

"This is not a case born of exploitation," said his lawyer Peter Elliott.

"(His) entire sexual experience encompasses what has been laid before this court ... When it came to matters of sex he was clueless save that he had watched pornography."

Mr Elliott said the events had "deeply affected" all of the offenders.

"Not deeply affected them because they were caught ... but deeply affected them in terms of their own sense of worth, their own sense of where they want to go in their lives and their own sense of what they are about," he said.

"It has been, certainly for Claevon Cooper, and I use the word in the strict sense of the word, a shocking experience, it has shocked him into a world really he knew nothing about."

Justice Riley said the media should not refer to the accused as rapists or describe the anal penetration of the child as rape because "there is no issue of consent".

The case resumes on Wednesday.

http://news.smh.com.au

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