Speeding Oz teen may face 'gorillas in the mist'

An Oz magistrate has informed a habitual speeding teenager that if he doesn't mend his high-speed ways he'll be sent directly to jail where showering sexual predators will make short work of his sorry arse. According to Reuters, Brian Maloney of Sydney's Downing Center Court on Monday issued the blunt warning to an unnamed 19- …

[Anonymous Coward]

Anal rape =/= justice

I'm sure there should be a "tough love" joke in this somewhere, but it's more than a bit worrying when a country will criminalise cartoon drawings for their sexual content but then attempt to use prison rape as a deterrent. When exactly was it that getting raped in prison changed from being a failure of prison security to discharge their duties to being par for the course? More to the point, how exactly is bumrape or the threat of it going to actually rehabilitate anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

In other words

"Do it again and I'll have you raped, by STD carrying convicted rapists"

I'd imagine the media would take a different stance on the Judges comments had the offender been of the fairer sex.

[Martin]

FFS, plain 'speeding' != dangerous driving;

thats why they are 2 different offences.

That young gobshite being threatened with jail, fair enough if he's genuinely driving like a twunt and giving the cops the run-around (which it seems he is).

Someone driving at 100mph on new years day (when the roads were no doubt quieter than a Woolworths next week) is NOT in the same category whatsoever.

[Anonymous Coward]

Good Defence Lawyer

So the judge is essentially saying that he will sentence the youth to being raped. Judges put people in prison all the time and some of them do get raped but they're able to wash their hands of responsibility because you can't really expect to be held accountable for someone elses actions. But when the judge states that that he is sending you to prison knowing that your going to be raped, does that not make him complicit? I'm sure the defendants solicitor could do something with that when the case is appealed.

[abigsmurf]

*sigh*

Remember people, rape is ok if it's happening to a man. Heck it's funny!

It depresses me that we live in a society where it's deemed that violent sexual assault is deemed an acceptable additional punishment to men being jailed. Perhaps everytime women prisoners go for a shower we could let a few ugly long sentence male prisoners 'join them'. That would have incredibly holarious results too right?

[Tony Green]

He doesn't seem bothered

From the look on the little shit's face outside the court (http://tinyurl.com/6uqx3f) I think his view is rather more "I got away with it again" than "I don't want my bottie prodded".

[Anonymous Coward]

Lawsuit in the making...

Seems odd that a judge would threaten someone with something illegal. Now, if the kid gets nailed by the inmates after getting nailed by the police, he'll probably be able to sue on the grounds that he was knowingly placed into harm's way by the govt.

Rape is one of those measures as to how well run a prison is. Why would you also place a someone convicted of a non-violent crime (and yes, I understand he could have hurt someone, but that's negligence) in with violent criminals?

It's like my friend's brother. He was thrown into an adult prison at 14, as an adult, for selling a little weed. This was a medium security prison (in the state that I lived in, it was pretty bad) and was far beyond the punishment he should have gotten. It messed him up pretty badly. Now he's a regular, since he treats people the same way he was treated in there.

[Michael Reed]

Sounds fair

No doubt, if a judge threatened a female criminal with rape as a punishment, the media would be equally full of praise.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sydney's Daily Telegraph

Ahem.

Sydney's Daily Telegraph = UKs Daily Mail

The Sydney's Daily Telegraph is just more of Rupert's awful shite!

[Rosco]

Rape

I'm sure there will be plenty of comments here applauding the judge and clamouring for such things to be written into our laws owing to it being "the only language they understand" etc etc

So I would like to state my opinion that a civilised society should not be sentencing teenagers to serial rape.

That is all.

[AndyC]

On the other hand...

Well done to the old guy for getting that fast. Most of the older folks on our roads are driving along at (speed limit minus 10 or 20mph)...

[Simon B]

Excellent!

NICE, love it, criminals get away wih too much as it is

[Wize]

He made a threat to send him to prison.

He was only reminding him that he would become someone's bitch when he gets locked away. Same goes for any young lad getting banged up.

[Anonymous Coward]

Warning of a potential reality

I seriously doubt that the Judge wants the "youth" to suffer rape in the prison.

What I believe the Judge was trying to do was to get the "youth" to try and take his situation seriously and stop treating his criminality and the justice system like a game. By telling him in no uncertain terms that some prisons contain very dangerous, nasty people and bad things can happen, no matter how well the prison is run. The "youth" is probably under the impression that he will not be sent to prison, or that prisons are the all expenses paid holiday camps that the media say they or the PC do-gooders would like them to become.

Basically, "Prisons are bad places, you don't want to go there." but done the Aussie way.

[Anonymous Coward]

Dangerous Driving != Speeding.

I've seen people doing +100mph down some of the stretches of dual carriage way here, 90% of the time they're driving safely. Not weaving through traffic, not swerving all over the place, just going fast in the fast lane...

Most of the dangerous driving I've seen in this area has been around the 30mph streets at 30mph. Morons that don't pay attention, busy on their phone or who just drive like pricks.

[Richard]

Only a good kick up the arse!

I've read the edited transcript, and going by that, I feel that Maloney did the little scrote a favour.

If he's been up in front of the beak four times, then clearly the punishments handed out so far haven't hit the mark. What he's done is to make a term in prison more scary. He's obviously put a lot of time and care into what he was going to say to Heap. I thought that the "Gorrilas in the mist" reference was quite funny, but frightening at the same time. He doesn't appear to threaten him with rape, rather that the inmates that are a lot bigger than him will "pay a lot of attention"

If he doesn't heed the Maloney's advice, he deserves to go to jail.

[Adam Foxton]

Surely not legal?

I mean telling the guy he'll be beaten and/or raped in prison is surely not legal? Certainly shouldn't be advisable. Especially for a driving offence; it's hardly the sort of thing that can cause the blood to boil (like child rape, which gets pretty much everyone sick, angry and emotional) and make the judge say something inadviseable.

Do you think the judge would instruct the guards to turn a blind eye to it?

Any legal people out there with a relevant case where saying "Do this or I'll have you raped by Big John" is shown to be very, very wrong?

Also, this is clearly indicative of the sexual prejudice inherent in the system; no judge would ever say that to a woman. Because, as someone's written above, it's clearly funny and not a big deal when it happens to a guy.

[Andus McCoatover]

Helluva wake-up call...

Absolutely agree with the magistrate. He didn't threaten - just told what the reality is.

Read the full text (link below). That was a helluva wake-up call. Or would've been if the Cupid Stunt had taken it seriously, which it appears he didn't. He'll learn a new phrase soon.

"Pass the Vas.."

Here's what should've been concentrated on (excerpt): "I probably should sentence you to jail but that would probably ruin your life and I think more can be gained with trying to educate you." That's fair dinkum. Idiot perp STILL doesn't realise he just went to the "Last Chance Saloon"

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24875701-5001030,00.html

[Anonymous Coward]

He got the message, apparently

It seems he may have got the message - not due to the implied threat (these days many teen lads have more bi-sexual outlooks anyhow!) - but because of the realisation that he could kill. Maybe it has something to do with all the media interest due to the magistrate's comment - infamous for being a dick-head.

"I felt like going back to that magistrate and apologising because it makes him look like an idiot too, like I was treating this like a joke," [Cody] Heap told The Daily Telegraph.

"But I'm not. It's serious and what he said took a massive impact on my life.

"I took in everything that was said and I agree with it all."

Heap felt the full force of Mr Maloney's wrath after pleading guilty to avoiding a random breath test and leading police on a chase through Sydney - while not holding a licence.

Just as devastating, if not more so, to Heap than losing his licence were Mr Maloney's home truths - immature, easily led and likes to impress his friends, ambivalent to authority figures, next stop, the slammer.

"You will find big, ugly, hairy, strong men who've got faces only a mother could love that will pay a lot of attention to you - and your anatomy," Mr Maloney said.

But perhaps most frightening to Heap was the thought of people losing their lives, like 15-year-old Lucy Lieberman, who was killed in a P-plate crash at the weekend.

"It was scary," Heap said. "Everything he said, losing the licence, the possibility of an accident, the jail time - everything. There's that girl that just died then there's me on the front page doing this, it's stupid.

"I had a camera in my face and just said, 'here have a snap, as a joke'."

The Penshurst teenager was driving without a licence through the city about 3am in June last year with his then-girlfriend and two mates in the back.

Instead of stopping for a random breath test he hit the accelerator, sparking a police chase. Why do it?

"I was immature," Heap said."People told me, my dad told me, 'don't be an idiot because you'll lose your licence or worse'. "But it doesn't sink in until it's too late."

Source: "Police chase P-plater Cody Heap now promises to slow down" http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24882821-1242,00.html

[Martin]

Will make the roads safer

So if speeding now carries a death sentence the only sensible thing to do next time is kill the cop who pulls you over.

Even if you get caught (unlikely) it isn't going to make any difference to the sentence so tool up, fill the car with explosive and mow down anyone that tries to nick you.

[N1AK]

Not the judges fault

The judge didn't threaten him with something illegal, the judge gave him a lengthy lecture on why his current behaviour if continued would have negative consequences and in the process tried to make clear just how bad prison can be. It seemed pretty clear the judge doesn't want this boy to end up in prison, maybe his method was dubious but his intent was honourable.

Yes this kind of thing happening in jails is a massive failure of the system, and yes it should be stopped but this judge can't do it. Should the judge refuse to sentence anyone to prison time until such a time as it is 'safe' to do so?

Most people don't give a shit about prison inmates and what happens to them, they can ignore the fact that prisoners are humans and see no issue with them being treated as badly as possible. Again this is a massive problem.

[Chris]

Dian Fossey is at Long Bay jail?

I didn't realize gorillas were indigenous to Long Bay jail. On top of that I am highly OFFENDED (note caps) at these beautiful primates being described as "big, ugly, hairy strong men who've got faces only a mother could love that will pay a lot of attention to you - and your anatomy."

[Anonymous Coward]

New reg measurement

It now seems there's a need for El Reg to make a new measurement.

It'll have to be a ratio, though... Perhaps:

bum-buggerings per KPH over the limit...

or:

glory-hole diameter expansion:KPH over the limit, weighted by extra charges (intoxication, endangerment, etc)

Perhaps other variables could also factor in :

Lack of sphinctor tension vs time served

Likelihood of the perp to re-offend

Likelihood of the perp becoming a switch-hitter

Mayhaps we need to set up a "charity" where one can mail cigarettes and candy bars to inmates who "discourage" particularly offensive offenders as chosen by an El Reg poll... Especially spam-senders...

Mine's the one with the covers my industrial-strength chastity belt...

[Sarah Bee]

The ironing is delicious

I'm saying absolutely nothing about the fact that any thread on here involving the conviction of a hacker or any other naughty sort is generally awash with gleeful references to Bubba and his very special shower-based brand of prisoner punishment.

Not a sausage.

[Eddy Ito]

Where it hurts

Wouldn't it be easier and more profitable for the gubbermint to just take and resell any car he is caught driving? He won't impress too many friends if they lose their car for letting him drive. Same goes for the parents, press the grand theft auto case of lose the car.

[Rob]

Baffled

At how some readers ever make it to The Reg in the first place let alone misread an article and then way in with their large self-appointed opinion.

The Judges efforts were worthy of an award, he actually had the youngsters welfare at heart along with the general safety of the public. In the UK our justice system has turned into a ranking system where by the early starters get on the achievement ladder by clocking up some ASBO's.

Shame the kid who shot and killed Rhys Jones hadn't had the same treatment from a previous hearing, he might not have killed Rhys and he himself might not have been beaten and ended up in hospital.

Generally speaking, we should start being more realistic as a society than being far too bloody PC about everything.

[Colin Millar]

Not a sausage?

What about a saveloy?

Not even a chipolata?

How about a nice greasy salami?

Do you really mean that you have bugger-all to say?

What a bummer

[DutchOven]

RE: Excellent

Simon B wrote: "NICE, love it, criminals get away wih too much as it is"

Next thing you know, we'll be putting them all on boats and sending them off to a nice sunny country like Australia.

[Geeks and Lies]

@Colin Millar

Excellent :-)

[Bad Beaver]

Threat bull

Come on, you cannot seriously read an advocation of male rape into telling a delinquent about the possible consequences of his actions. Yes, rape is wrong, yes, it also should not happen in prison, yet if you think just because something is wrong it does not happen you are being delusional. He's telling a kid with a "whatever" attitude that he won't be spending a couple months lifting weights with slightly misunderstood philanthropists if he keeps fucking up. If that keeps the kid from damaging himself or others on the road, I'm fine with it.

[Graham Marsden]

@Sarah Bee

But what you've got to remember is that this is not something that affects the poster who's making the "Bubba" comments, so it's entirely different!

[E_Nigma]

@Eddy Ito

Last time I checked, unless a possession was ill-gotten, property is guaranteed by law. You break that and you took away one of fundamental rights and opened a Pandora's box full of abuse.

This can be looked at in two ways. If you interpret the judges words as if he meant to say: "If you make another offence, I'll have you raped!", that's awful. If you want to be more benevolent to the judge, you may think that he just tried to scare the guy enough to make him stop misbehaving before he got himself in big trouble when it seemed that fines and other penalties had no effect, in which case the judge was doing him a favour.

[Sooty]

not right

It may have been attempted as a wakeup call that prisons are not nice places, but under no circumstances should it have been said by a judge, in a courtroom.

Inside a courtroom a judges word is pretty much law and every decision sets legal presidents for those to come. Whether rightly or wrongly, admitting that the prison system doesn't work and that inmates will get raped, is admitting that he is being sentenced to be raped, which the judge can't legally do.

If the judge officially keeps his head in the sand he's fine, as he's only officially sentencing someone to incarceration, which is well within his rights. as soon as he admits that he could be raped or killed, he's no longer just sentencing the guy to just imprisonment, he's sentencing him to be raped or killed, which he isn't able to do, or if he can, he really shouldn't be able to.

it's a bit of a strange opinion i know, which a lot of people won't agree with, but there are limits to what a criminal can be sentenced to, whether the sentence indirectly leads to it or not, admitting it openly it flouting the rules

[Andus McCoatover]

@Sarah Bee

Icon says it.

Beats my missus's fave game of Hide the Salami.

(i.e., "Now you see it, now you don't"..OK, only (s)played about 5 times at a time but I'm in my half-century...THE SECOND HALF, sodditt!!)

[Andus McCoatover]

@Sooty

Nope. He's not a Judge, but a Magistrate. Different rules.

See link above (posted by me) for the text of his ruling. Funny how we focus on the "Bubba" bit, and not the wise advice/bollocking that his parents should have given him years ago, when at the same time they should've crushed the car in front of his eyes at the first/second/third offence (depends on your leniency.)

If I was his father, the muppet would be lucky to have a bike. With stabilisers.

[Neoc]

As an Aussie, I thought I'd reply:

A) Re: FFS, plain 'speeding' != dangerous driving;" @Martin

OZ roads are not empty on NYE or NYD. Not by a long shot. And have you *seen* the roads in OZ? Who in their right mind would want to speed on them?

B) The judge was stupid. Not for what he said, but for what he didn't do: this kid obviously doesn't give a sh*t about the law - he was already driving with a suspended licence, and ran from the cops to cover it. In other words, telling him "you're not allowed to drive for a while" didn't work before, why should it work *now*? The kid was driving a car without a licence? Fine: assuming it wasn't stolen, sell the car, give the money to charity. Not his car? Tough. Who in their right mind lends his/her car to someone without a licence (medical emergencies nothwithstanding)?

[Meph]

Re: The ironing is delicious

That just totally made my day.

As for the kid? Australia (and likely most other tier 1 and 2 countries) are awash with a distinct lack of respect for authority. Too many people don't understand that actions have consequences.

Its about time someone in a position of authority puts the fear of the gods back into people who break society's laws.

[Michael Heydon]

Property

>Last time I checked, unless a possession was ill-gotten, property is guaranteed by law.

>You break that and you took away one of fundamental rights and opened a Pandora's

>box full of abuse.

Not true, Australia has recently brought in "anti-hoon laws" which allow the police to confiscate and sell the cars of repeat offenders. I'm not quite sure this chap would qualify (there are rules about which offenses count), but he must be close.

[Steve Roper]

I'm fine with it

just as long as the next time that magistrate has a teenage girl in front of him with serial convictions, he says exactly the same thing to her. And the media respond to that with the same level of praise for telling it like it is to juvenile crims.

Because otherwise, Australia has just escalated the rule of feminism by yet another entire order of magnitude.

[Anonymous Hero]

@Meph

And suggesting that rape would be a good punishment for speeding is gonna make people respect him MORE? Hell no. This judge is a menace and should to be removed by any means necessary.

[elderlybloke]

NZ has similar things to Heap

and I think a few months in a non luxury prison would help save more valuable lives.

I thought about have a two minute worry about this Heap and then couldn't be bothered.

[Anonymous Coward]

The bloke is an idiot

I'd love to see the comments of the same people who think the judge went too far should this kid commit a similar offence again, but this time managing to kill or horribly maim a completely innocent member of the public or even a child while speeding drunk (while also disqualified, so uninsured) trying to escape the police through a city.

If any of you had actually read the full transcript of what the judge said to him, this little paragraph was just a tiny part of what was supposed to be a massive wake-up call for him. He spoke to him like you would try to explain to a naughty child, and far from trying to be funny, he was trying to scare him into thinking a bit more carefully about his actions.

By the look of the prick in the photo taken outside the court, it looks like he has taken absolutely none of it in. He might well be back behind the wheel again before long, maybe this time he'll seriously hurt someone. You can only hope that the community service, and the people he will be forced to meet (paraplegics injured in accidents, paramedics who have had to pull mangled bodies out of wreckages etc. as indicated by the judge) will shock him into realisation.

Sarah Bee, I'm right with you on that, It's fine for people to comment here to that effect, but the moment a judge does it to try and shock a young man before he kills someone leaves the same people incensed.......

[Sarah Bee]

Re: I'm fine with it

Oh do bugger off with the 'rule of feminism' angle, it's really not relevant and it looks like you're just finding a way to stick the boot in. Of course rape isn't to be taken lightly whatever the sex of the victim - in case you hadn't noticed I spend far too much of my time on these threads telling people off for their Hilarious prison rape quips - but appalling idiot as the magistrate may be, he was at least referring to a well-known practice in male jails which I can't imagine is quite so prevalent in female jails for reasons which should be obvious.

I'm too woozy today to properly thrash this out but suffice to say, I'm bewildered at people's attempts to somehow make this about women being oppressive. I mean, it's just bonkers.

[Tim Bates]

Re: FFS, plain 'speeding' != dangerous driving;

But Martin... This is NSW, where the government repeatedly tell us Speeding *is* dangerous driving. Look at the tag line of the "pinky" ads. Both display burnouts, powersliding, etc, but the ad gets concluded with a line about speeding being bad.

And lets not forget all the other times when we've been told going even 1km/hr over the arbitrary limit will kill you and 40 kittens.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmm

I'm into men and I wouldn't touch the little 'person' with a bargepole!

[Steve Roper]

Ouch...

Yay! I finally pissed off the Moderatrix and copped a drubbing! /me proudly displays banbat scars to enthralled El Reg audience ;)

Joking aside, I need to clarify a couple of points:

First of all, at no point have I ever stated that "women" are oppressive. It seems you've fallen for what I call "the first lie of feminism"; the idea that feminism and female are synonymous. They are not: female is a physical gender, feminism is a socio-political movement. Feminists perpetrated this lie so that they could label anyone who opposes their viewpoint as a "misogynist". The oppressors are not women; they are the (mostly male) politicians and lawmakers who pandered to the feminist vote, while many of the most vociferous feminist voters are themselves metrosexual men who bat for the other team to gain various social advantages.

Second, of course it is well-known pop culture that guys who go to jail get bum-raped by Bubba, and as part of that culture most people will joke about it. But that a number of commenters besides myself have chosen to raise this issue shows that feminist (not female) discrimination is a real social concern. It is entirely inappropriate for a judge or magistrate to make these kinds of references in a court of law, knowing that he can do so to a male accused because of the widespread ingrained acceptance of this discrimination, and knowing that he could not do so to a female accused because of the media castigation that would ensue. And the implication that this lad could be bum-raped and have no legal recourse has far-reaching ramifications for all men. That's why, when these kinds of issues surface, each one seemingly more misandrous than the last, people (both male and female I might add) like myself speak out, in order to try to stem the tide.

[Meph]

Re: @Meph

You're misreading what the magistrate was saying. There was no threat, implied or otherwise, the man was telling it like it is.

Would you tell a newbie soldier that going to war is all rainbows and butterflies? or would you tell him that there's a strong chance of him being mangled by gunfire?

The magistrate appeared to be telling the little punk "if you do this again, I'll send you to prison, and bad things happen there."

Prison rape is no laughing matter, and is an indication of a problem with the system, that I'll grant you, but like it or not it does happen. Not being sent to prison seems like a valid method of minimising the risk no?

[André]

Gorillaz...

If it was actually horny gorillas that the lad would have to deal with in prison, he'd run very little risk of anal rape since a male gorilla's "equipment" is of rather diminutive size.

On a humorously coincident note, Italian singer/songwriter Fabrizio de Andrè wrote a rather hilarious song about a judge and a gorilla, "Attenti al Gorilla!" ("Watch out for that gorilla!"). It appears de Andrè did not know about the anatomical details of this particular species of primate either.

[Trix]

Get your hand off it

"the first lie of feminism"; the idea that feminism and female are synonymous"

Actually, most feminists in English-speaking countries actually understand the difference between "feminist" and "female" - show us an example of where someone doesn't.

What I don't understand, since it is not a phrase I've ever encountered in English, is what "rule of feminism" means. Are you talking about a matriarchy? I don't know of any of those in any first world country. Sorry.

Pointing out examples of misogyny - ie. contempt for women - is kind of what feminism is all about. But I don't know of any feminists who claim that *only* feminists are subjected to misogynistic attitudes and behaviour. Hello, cart, horse?

Finally, I don't call everyone who disagrees with my point of view using non-existent logic a "misogynist" (except where they're being that *as well*) - I just call them a trolling idiot.

/Paris, because she knows all about idiocy