Aboriginal 'rape' case reviewed

By Phil Mercer
BBC News, Darwin

Correspondents say the case is a clash of cultures

An appeals court in Australia has begun reviewing the sentence of an aboriginal man who served a month in jail for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

The defence has argued that the man thought he had done nothing wrong, as the teenager had been promised to him as a bride under traditional practices.

But prosecutors are asking the court in Darwin to increase his sentence.

The government has insisted that customary law should have no place in the country's criminal justice system.

This clash of cultures has brought traditional aboriginal customs into conflict with Australian law.

Mixed verdicts

In August, an elder from the remote community of Yarralin in the Northern Territory was jailed for sexually assaulting a child.

The 14-year-old girl was to have been his wife, in keeping with tribal conventions.

During the attack, the man, known only as GJ, who is in his mid-fifties, thought the sex was consensual.

He believed that he was acting within the boundaries of traditional aboriginal marriages.

He claimed he did not realise that what he did to the child was against the law in the Northern Territory.

The judge gave much weight to the defendant's ignorance of the legal system when he sent him to jail for two years.

GJ has served just one month behind bars. The rest of his sentence was suspended.

Australian Justice Minister Chris Ellison believes a more severe punishment should be imposed.

"You're dealing with a sexual assault on a young girl. It was clear from the facts that violence was used," he said.

"In any case, my sympathies will always be with the victim, particularly where it's a child."

The Northern Territory government has been criticised for not educating people in isolated aboriginal communities about the law.