Geoff Clark is a rapist. That was the verdict of a Victorian County Court civil jury yesterday, when it found that the former chairman of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission led two pack rapes against a teenage girl more than 35 years ago.
After two days of deliberations, the jury of three men and three women found that Mr Clark assaulted Carol Anne Stingel in Warrnambool in March 1971 and again a month later.
She was awarded $20,000 in compensation but did not receive the punitive damages she had requested.
By coincidence The Independent reports yesterday:
"More and more rape suspects are escaping justice each year despite record numbers of women prepared to come forward to report a sex crime.
A damning report into the investigation and prosecution of rape cases in England and Wales shows that victims are being failed at almost every stage of the criminal justice system.
The findings, which are published today, represent a major blow for the Government which has introduced new measures to try to improve the conviction rate for rape cases.
Between 2002 and 2005, 4,000 more women have reported rape while the proportion of suspects being convicted has fallen from 6.57 per cent to 5.31 per cent.
In a joint report of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Her Majesty's Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, the authors concluded that many police officers and prosecutors were only paying lip-service to new policies aimed at increasing the very small proportion of cases that get to court.
Of particular concern is the high number of allegations reported to the police which are then wrongly categorised as "no crime". The inspectors found police wrongly recorded rape allegations as "no crimes" in nearly a third of cases."
It is probably fair to claim that the situation in Australia isn't all that much different. There is certainly anecdotal evidence to suggest so. Justce is clearly not being done let alone being seen to be done.
After two days of deliberations, the jury of three men and three women found that Mr Clark assaulted Carol Anne Stingel in Warrnambool in March 1971 and again a month later.
She was awarded $20,000 in compensation but did not receive the punitive damages she had requested.
By coincidence The Independent reports yesterday:
"More and more rape suspects are escaping justice each year despite record numbers of women prepared to come forward to report a sex crime.
A damning report into the investigation and prosecution of rape cases in England and Wales shows that victims are being failed at almost every stage of the criminal justice system.
The findings, which are published today, represent a major blow for the Government which has introduced new measures to try to improve the conviction rate for rape cases.
Between 2002 and 2005, 4,000 more women have reported rape while the proportion of suspects being convicted has fallen from 6.57 per cent to 5.31 per cent.
In a joint report of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Her Majesty's Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, the authors concluded that many police officers and prosecutors were only paying lip-service to new policies aimed at increasing the very small proportion of cases that get to court.
Of particular concern is the high number of allegations reported to the police which are then wrongly categorised as "no crime". The inspectors found police wrongly recorded rape allegations as "no crimes" in nearly a third of cases."
It is probably fair to claim that the situation in Australia isn't all that much different. There is certainly anecdotal evidence to suggest so. Justce is clearly not being done let alone being seen to be done.
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