Child activists across the world have come to criticize the order of Judge Nigel Peters of UK, who on Monday let a 41-year-old man walk free after sympathizing with him in court observing the 13-year-old girl victim was “predatory and egging you on.”
However, the judge’s observations came only after the prosecutor (not the defense attorney) on the matter, Robert Colover, submitted, “The girl is predatory in all her actions and she is sexually experienced …”
It was difficult to fathom who was being prosecuted, the victim or the abuser.
Activists hold that there is no conceivable circumstance where a child can consent to the sexual abuse of his or her self. However, the judge observed that the girl behaved and looked “a little bit older,” and it was alright for the abuser to be spared jail, and go home with a suspended sentence.
The facts of the case show that Neil Wilson, the abuser had lured the teenage girl to his home, and watched her strip out of her school uniform before performing a sex act on him. Law enforcement also found images of child abuse on him.
Wilson had met the schoolgirl when she asked him to buy cigarettes for her. Then over the course of two weeks, he sent a barrage of text messages and made numerous phone calls, until she visited him at his home.
The wave of criticism following the sentence made the UK Attorney General’s office wake up and confirm the sentence will be reviewed, and a senior law officer will examine whether it was “unduly lenient.”
A spokesman of the Crown Prosecution Service said, “The transgressor in this case was the defendant and he bears responsibility for his criminal acts.” He also admitted that the prosecution counsel had used “inappropriate” language in the matter.
Children’s rights campaigners severely criticized the sentence and Alison Worsley, the deputy director of strategy of Bernardo said “It is plain wrong to imply in any way that the experiences of sexually exploited children are something they bring on themselves.”