Court Slaps Longer Jail Terms on Rape Gang
By Sarah Crichton
Originally published in The Sydney Morning Herald, March 13, 2002
Jail sentences for three teenage gang rapists have been more than doubled in an appeal court ruling which the Premier, Bob Carr, said showed judges were listening to the community.
The sentence for one of the teenagers was almost tripled when the Court of Criminal Appeal ruled the jail terms ordered by District Court Judge Megan Latham were "manifestly inadequate".
The sentences mean the three—two brothers and their cousin—must serve at least nine and 10 years in custody. One of their two victims gasped as the sentences were read out.
One of the girls said outside court: "I hope they've realised what they've done, I think justice has been served and I hope the smirk wipes off their faces in jail."
The second victim said she was getting on with her life but still looked over her shoulder "every five seconds" since the attack in September 2000.
"They were just animals. They had no respect for humans, let alone females," she said.
The three teenagers, who cannot be named because two were 16 at the time of the attack, each pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual assault against the two girls, who were then 16.
Judge Latham had sentenced the eldest—referred to as AEM Snr, now 20—to a non-parole period of four years. He must now serve at least nine years. His brother, KEM, now 18, had been sentenced to a minimum three years and six months but must now serve at least 10 years. The minimum sentence for their cousin, 17-year-old MM, was increased from four to 10 years.
Maximum terms of up to six years imposed after their trial were yesterday increased to between 13 and 14 years. The maximum penalty was 20 years.
Judge Latham had ordered that KEM and MM serve their entire sentences in a juvenile justice centre. But the Court of Appeal ordered they should serve the remainder of their terms in an adult prison once they turned 19 and 20 respectively.
The appeal judges found "fundamental inconsistency" in Judge Latham's approach. While she had found the crimes to be almost a "worst class case", she had also described the attacks as "due to an opportunistic encounter and in effect a display of sexual bravado".
"That description falls far short of the actuality of these crimes and has the effect both of diluting and diverting attention from the objective seriousness of the offences," the appeal judges said.
After the community outcry which followed Judge Latham's ruling last August, the State Government increased the 20-year maximum sentence for gang rape to life imprisonment. "Today's decision shows judges are listening to the community," Mr Carr told Parliament.
The Court of Appeal said the "humiliation and degradation" inflicted on the victims was "almost unspeakable".
The girls were raped after accepting a lift from the young men from Beverly Hills station. In a five-hour ordeal they were taken to a house in Villawood and raped repeatedly, sometimes at knifepoint.
