The mother faced that charge because she… had also aided in the rape of the girl by another man.
This is one of the the most horrific sentences I’ve ever read. A mother helps a man rape her 12 year old daughter. I don’t know what to say. The extent of human evil knows no bounds.
A point from the piece, though, which illustrates the reluctance of the media to use the words which are needed to explain the reality of cases such as this:
The court heard the girl was aged 12 and 13 years at the time she had sex with various men during an eight months period in 2004.
No, this girl did not have sex with multiple men. That implies that the child consented to sex with men, when that was not the case at all. She was a child whose parents sold her into prostitution. She didn’t consent – she was raped, repeatedly, by multiple men. That’s what happened and that’s how it should be reported. Why does the media always try to neutralise events like this by using conciliatory and less upsetting language? It does rape victims a disservice, and it gives rapists excuses to minimise their offences.
Full piece:
A COUPLE who sold their daughter into prostitution using the internet to advertise her services should spend twice as long in jail, a court has heard.
In what was described as the “most horrific case of child prostitution in Australian history”, the girl’s mother was jailed for 13 years and her father for 10 years.
The court heard the girl was aged 12 and 13 years at the time she had sex with various men during an eight months period in 2004.
The Gold Coast couple pleaded guilty to more than 60 offences including maintaining a sexual relationship with a child and prostitution in the District Court at Southport, in January.
But after time served on remand and parole recommendations the mother will be eligible for release on March 10, 2010, and the father last month. He has not applied for parole pending the appeal.
The Attorney General, Kerry Shine, went to the Court of Appeal today seeking to alter the sentences so they carry a serious violent offence classification which would mean both would serve 80 percent of their sentences – the mother 10 years four months and the father eight years.
However, Michael Copley, for Mr Shine, said it was an unusual appeal because the sentencing judge had given the highest sentences for the prostitution offences and not that of maintaining a sexual relationship wth a child.
He said prostitution was not a serious violent offence under Queensland laws but maintaining a sexual relationship with a child was one.
Mr Copley admitted it was a curious maintaining charge because neither parent was accused of carnal knowldge of the girl.
The mother faced that charge because she had posed the child for advertising photographs used on the internet and had also aided in the rape of the girl by another man.
The father had helped pose the child for the photographs and had lived off her earnings.
The Court of Appeal reserved its judgment.
tenderhooligan 
Very very sickening.
With reference to the sentence regarding whether she had sex with multiple men or was raped. Isn’t it plausible that through fear, or some form of conditioning from her parents that she acted willingly and consented to the sexual acts with various men. Therefore she may not of been raped by multiple men. These clients were clearly paedophiles, evil and many things stronger that words cannot describe, but technically they may not of been rapists, and she may not always have been raped. Hence why the article felt the need to use the phrase it did.
It makes me awfully sad just thinking about it.
Sex with someone you’re scared to say no to because of what will happen to you is rape. Sex that is against your will, in any shape or form, is rape. Men who have sex with 12 year old girls are rapists. All the wordplay in the world does not detract from the act and what it means.
If an 18 year old was forced into prostitution, would people paying for sex with them be called rapists?
p.s. That’s not a loaded question… I’m not trying to win some argument… I’m just wondering where you draw the boundaries of what is and what isn’t rape.
If the 18 yr old doesnt consent then yes, if she is a prostitute then no. If some men/women captured her and sold her then yes
Anyone who forces anyone to have sex with them is a rapist. The same rule applies: Sex that is against your will, in any shape or form, is rape. Just because you pay someone to have sex with you, doesn’t mean you can’t rape them.
But what if the person who had been forced into prostitution, personally took payment, instigated the act of foreplay with the client, and subsequently had sex. Then surely that would not be rape. Or have I got it wrong? For all we know the girl in the article could of behaved in a similar manner.
In the UK at least, it’s rape if the girl is under fourteen regardless of whether she “consented” or not.
I used to be really shocked when I read reports like this, nowadays I am merely shocked. In my mind that is a terrible reflection on the elements of society that believe they can do this and that it is okay to do so, especially seeing there seem to be more and more people like this in the world today.
It’s that last part of that, that renders me speechless, yet sadly I cannot see it getting better – only worse.
Thank you SO much for writing things like this on your blog. You know probably how much I am against human trafficking and sadly too many people don’t realize how much of slavery is still around in this day in age (more than ever). So thank you. It’s my passion and i’ve been pushing my church for months to somehow talk about it (and they’re thinking about allowing me to have my own class to teach about it). Seriously if you want to know much more information about all the various forms of slavery today or anything else (statistics and such), let me know!! I have books and books on it that i’ve read and a whole folder of print outs and newspaper articles and brochures from organizations.
in response to some of your comments. . .if they are sold into prostitution they dont get to keep any of their money and sometimes they say “I paid this much for you and you owe me it” but they usually threaten the children and scare them to not end and really they make all the money back within a week but are so evil that they continue to use them. They have no power over what they make because they never get to keep the money. A lot of the time that they sell these children or kidnap them or women even, they make up stories saying they have great job opportunities for them in another country or somehwere. They say they will waitress, etc. Most of the time these are third world countries where people have nothing and have no idea that they are being tricked. They send them there and will use any way they can to get to use them the way they want. They also often times beat the women. Of course a lot of men dont realize that they are having sex with slaves and think they are there on their own. There are even sex tourism where men from america or the UK will go to various countries to try out sex because it’s cheap and easy. They have no idea. If the girls say anything they get beat or killed! They can easily replace them because human trafficking is the 2nd largest crime in the world, second to drugs.
only 10% of women go into prostitution on their own free will and those women usually do get to keep some of their money especially if they are from the actual country. the others do not and are usually all from different countries. 60% of those in prostitution are women under the age of 16. the youngest are 4 years old!!!!
Thank you for your comment, Victoria.
Wow, I knew you were very interested in human trafficking but I didn’t realise that you had so much information on it. Good for you. I really hope that your church does take an active role in teaching people about this problem. I’m not religious, as you know, but I’m happy for any organisation at all to take positive steps to inform others about trafficking.
And you’re right about the trickery involved in people trafficking. I’ve watched so many documentaries on the machinations of traffickers with innocent women and children and it makes me sick. Trafficked women have no rights at all, and I dread to think of what they go through.
James, I guess that might answer your question as well. Trafficked women seldom get to keep any of their ‘earnings’. Prostitutes in general don’t, statistically speaking, make fortunes of money. But aside from that, even when the sex is instigated by the victim in such situations, it is nearly always under duress and because of fear. So, yes, it’s still rape in my mind.
Lism, thank you for the clarification.
Perp, agreed. Nuff said.
My eldest daughter is twelve years old, nearly thirteen. The idea of prostituting her is disgusting. How anyone could twist themselves or be twisted enough to justify this to themselves is beyond me. How they can live with themselves is beyond me.
It’s just a different kind of person – I don’t understand it myself, Hover.