Stuart Suterland! (Teacher sentenced to three yrs today)

[foreigncorrespondent]

Guys I have got to talk about this.

Someone I know (not going to mention who) works (I should say worked now) with this sick and twisted man. He never showed any remorse for having screwed up the life of a 14 (not 15 as the Herald Sun would have you believe) year old girl.

He was still learing at girls, and someone else who works with him caught him with another young girl a few weeks back.

Anyway, he was sentenced today to three years with a minimum of two years to be served. To me that isn't enough punishment for a cold hearted person who has done nothing by lie through out the entire trial, and who hasn't shown one ounce of remorse for what he has done.

This girl and her family are now going through counciling to try and move on, but the fact is, this girl, while she may had said yes to him, was too young to really make that kind of decision will be totally screwed up for life. She may not show it, but the affect her encounter with Stuart will have on her, will come out in other ways as she enters adulthood.

How do you guys feel about this? I mean, do you guys think our sentencing laws need to looked at a lot closer and for certain crimes (murder, rape, etc) harsher sentences dealt out?

[roguevalley]

1. There is an interesting split of opinion on things like this. If a woman

teacher molests a young boy, there are more people than you can imagine who think its trivial or even funny. Now that its a man molesting a girl, I wonder how many of them feel the same way? There is a TERRIBLE double standard here and I hate it. No matter who is doing the molesting its child rape. Mary K. Latourneau or this ass. Either one is a beast and there is NO difference between them. None.

[Cronus Protagonist]

2. Perhaps neither one is a beast and the AOC needs to be lowered

NOt advocating it, just pointing out another possible solution since in each case, both parties consented. Besides, who are you to call Latournoeau a beast when she is marring her young fiancee and they will be raising their children together? Can't the young man make up his own interpretation and live by that, as he is apparently doing?

[foreigncorrespondent]

3. You will get...

...no argument from me. I agree with you totally.

No matter the sex of a child if that child is underage and an adult is having sexual relations with that child, then that adult deserves the punishment dealt to them.

Kids should be left alone to enjoy their childhood, because it is the only childhood they are gonna have in this life. They have a chance to play adult when they come of age.

I used to live next door to a paedophile. I didn't know this sick bastard was a paedophile until the day I looked out my kitchen window and saw standing at his back fence masturbating, while watching the boys playing tennis in the courts behind our home.

I did call the police on this man, but because he hadn't done anything wrong in the eyes of the law (meaning he hadn't lured a child into his home and proceeded to have sexual relations with his victim, all they could charge him on was indecent exposure. And that is why I say our laws need reforming badly!

In my eyes, that man may have had a quick bang with himself down at the back fence, but if I hadn't called the police, what might it have been the next day? Luring a child into his home? He should have been charged with more than a misdemeanor for his actions.

[Djinn]

4. not across the board no

judges have got a fair bit of leeway with regards to sentancing and they should have.

all things considered I don't think this guy "got off", jail isn't a fun place even minimum security ones, he'll never teach again and will find it almost impossible to gain any kind of employment when released because he'll have SEX OFFENDER against his name forever, possibly even CHILD sex offender, who'll want to hire him?

you can't make an overall judgement on this sort of thing, there are 14 year olds out there (male and female) who decide to have sexual relationships of their own volition, they'll sometimes even be quite predatory themselves, and while I think any adult should still run screaming from the situation, it isn't always abuse. A recent case in Melbourne saw the "victim" give evidence on behalf of his "abuser", a young female teacher, saying it was completely consensual, non coerced and that he had no emotional trauma as a result of the affair and that he would be saddened if she received jailtime.