Posts Tagged ‘rape’

There is nothing I wish to say about this piece of offal that I can publish on this site. Let that suffice. On the topic in general, though, this makes a point about our perception of the aged and the disabled. While today’s 65 may be the new 55 and I am the first to admit we no longer seem to ‘age’ the way we did when I was a teen, we still tend to place age limits on various activities. We seem to be amazed that someone past retiring age has leapt out of an aeroplane on a tandem sky dive or returned to university for a degree. This is just as true for criminal activity as adventure sports or tertiary education achievements.

Just because someone is ‘old’ doesn’t make them honest, decent or nice. The same goes for disabled people. OK, they had Life deal them a crook hand but not every wheelchair bound man or woman is a nice, pleasant, role model for young adults kind of person. I know some very nasty blind people, the odd vicious cripple and what and some people on disability pensions who are just the same as us ‘able’ bodied types; sometimes nice and sometimes not so much fun to be with.

The same for age. There are some people who, even in Kindergarten you know are going to be societal problems some day. Old, past retirement men and women who would take you for everything you have if you gave them have a chance. Don’t make the mistake of stereotyping anyone. Just as we can’t assume every young teenager is a gang banger or because that kid is indigenous he must be up to no good (pick your own prejudice and apply) we can’t think that everyone old enough to be a grandparent is safe to leave your kids with.

This tragic case proves once again rape is not a sex crime, it is a power crime. The rapist got his thrill, but what about the terror experienced by his victim? No doubt that is what he fed off. He may be mentally unstable but that does not excuse his behaviour, nor should it allow him to escape severe punishment. He needs to know what it is like to be the victim. I am sure some other thrill seeker will give him a taste of what he dished out when he gets to Pentridge.

Man Raped 85yo Woman For A Thrill

A man who bashed and raped an 85-year-old woman at a Melbourne train station says he did it for a “thrill”.

Victorian Country Court Judge Duncan Allen said 65-year-old Allan Richard Hodson’s attack on the elderly woman in January was “spine chilling”.

“It’s hard to imagine any rape of this type – a rape of a stranger in a public place – that is a lot worse than that,” Judge Allen said during Hodson’s pre-sentence hearing on Friday.

Prosecutor Chris Ryan said Hodson “chillingly” described to police his motivation for the attack.

Hodson told police “here’s a good opportunity, I suppose, to have a bit of a thrill”, he told the court.

Hodson also admitted to police his victim was frail and he punched her forcefully during the assault in a train station toilet.

He told police he threatened to hurt the woman if she told anyone.

“I know where you live and I will come back and cut you.”

Mr Ryan said Hodson, of Bairnsdale, had travelled to Melbourne that day for a psychiatric visit and had drunk four bottles of beer before the attack.

The pre-sentence hearing before Judge Allen is continuing.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/vic/latest/a/-/newshome/9938521/man-raped-85yo-woman-for-a-thrill/

A 49 year old woman in Queensland was raped by a passing motorist after her car broke down, leaving her stranded by the roadside. While waiting for help she was dragged into the rapist’s white van, punched in the face, threatened with a knife and raped. How could this have been avoided?

I think we too often feel we are being paranoid if we were to lock our doors and windows and remain in the vehicle, refusing help from anyone but the police or road service crew (NRMA, AAA, RACQ etc). I would certainly understand if a woman, especially at midnight, didn’t want me to help her, better safe than sorry and no offence taken.

In this day and age everyone should have a mobile phone they can call for help on and most places are within coverage. Having said that my 73 year old mother still goes once a month to a friend’s restaurant in the country and helps with the cooking. She returns in daylight the next day but only a few years ago she would make the trip at night. A lot of the steep, winding rural road has poor cell phone coverage. On one trip, on a Sunday afternoon, she was stopped by three indigenous persons blocking the road. As two remained in the middle of the road, one climbed in followed by the other two and told her to give them a lift to town. She complied and was terrified the whole way but fortunately this time, they just wanted a ride. Lesson? Lock your doors and keep windows up, use the aircon.

How safety conscious  do you have to be nowadays before common sense precautions becomes paranoia? Some experts speak of being in Code Yellow, then going to Code Orange and finally Code Red as things escalate and when there  is no risk they are at Code Green. But what if you are colour blind or simply can’t be bothered living your life by a colour chart? All too complicated really, either you are at risk or you aren’t.

Vehicle breakdown? You are at risk. After dark? At risk. By yourself? At risk.  It might be hard to overcome one’s natural predilection to believing most people are good and intend no harm (and that is true) but sadly the few who are not are opportunistic predators. They will be forever alert to the chance to make you their prey.

And to the woman who fell victim to this slime… You are not at fault, ever. You survived which means you did everything right. There are no hard and fast rules as every situation, every predator, is different and while there are some commonalities, if you escape with your life then you did the right thing, even if that was to not resist.  While that might seem to contradict an earlier post of mine, it doesn’t. As I said every situation is different and in this case the man had the element of surprise, a weapon and no hesitation in striking the woman to gain some compliance. I repeat, she did nothing wrong, it was not her fault, yet all too often victims suffer for years afterwards feeling they were the one that caused the crime.  Let’s hope this predator is caught and punished.