In yet another case of epic victim-blaming, a British judge has decided to suspend the sentence of a 41-year old Neil Wilson who admitted having sex with a 13-year-old girl, allowing him to walk free from court after prosecution called the girl “predatory.”
In his sentencing, Judge Nigel Peters appeared to have bought into the prosecution’s suggestion that the girl had somehow been complicit in her abuse, despite the discovery of child and bestiality pornography in his home during a search. Wilson admitted in court that he had lured the 13-year-old into his home, where she stripped and performed a sexual act on him, according to Metro.
“You [Wilson] have come as close to prison as is imaginable,” said Peters. “I have taken in to account that even though the girl was 13, the prosecution say she looked and behaved a little bit older…On these facts, the girl was predatory and was egging you on…”
The controversial sentence has made it to the Attourney General’s office, which is considering whether or not to refer it to the Court of Appeals which can make the final ruling on whether the “suspended sentence” was too lenient. Deputy Children’s Commissioner Sue Berelowitz weighed in, saying the judge’s behavior was “of the deepest concern” and calling the sentence “lenient.”
She is joined by a crusade of hundreds of other sexual abuse and women’s rights campaigners. A spokeswoman for the charity Rape Crisis said that the sentence “utterly refutes the strong implication of the judge’s comments that a child’s behaviour can somehow mitigate that of an adult who perpetrates sexual violence against her.”
Also under fire is the barrister Robert Colover, who in the trial represented Crown Prosecution Services, the agency responsible for prosecuting crimes in England and Wales. “The girl is predatory in all her actions and she is sexually experienced,” he reportedly told the court. “She appeared to look around 14 or 15 and had the mental age of a 14 or 15 year old despite being younger than that. There was sexual activity but it was not of Mr Wilson’s doing, you might say it was forced upon him despite being older and stronger than her.’
Crown Prosecution Services has since released its own statement regarding its prosecutor’s victim-blaming rhetoric, saying it will consider Colover’s handling of the trial and “will not instruct him in any ongoing or future cases involving sexual offences in the meantime.”
Prime Minister David Cameron also commented, stating that CPS was “absolutely right” to say that Colover’s comments were inappropriate. “The victims should always be at the centre of our thinking and I’m pleased the CPS have made that statement and I’m also pleased that the attorney general has said that he is personally going to look into this case,” he said.