Back to the dark ages

Back to the dark ages

By Melanie Sjoberg

MELBOURNE — Community opinion has been outraged by the decision of the Supreme Court to uphold a lesser sentence for convicted rapist Heros Hakopian, on the ground that the victim would have suffered less trauma because she was a prostitute. Melbourne newspapers and radio stations have been filled with the debate.

"Rape is not sex and sex is not rape", Deborah Cass, law tutor from Melbourne University, told a rally of more than 200 people on January 12. The rally, called by the Prostitute's Collective of Victoria, was held outside the Supreme Court building.

Wendy Larkin, from the Women's Legal Resources Group, condemned the legal system for allowing people so obviously out of touch with community opinion to continue to make decisions. She also criticised the Age for its editorial coverage which endorsed the judgment. She said that it was time people understood that if a woman did not consent to sex, in any circumstances, then it was rape.

A speaker form Scarlet Alliance, a new national group established to fight for the rights of sex workers, linked this issue with the general attack on men and women in the sex industry. He cited unsolved bashings, rapes and attacks against sex workers as symptomatic of an increasingly common view that sex workers are "fair game".

From GLW issue 40