A teenager who raped two girls and indecently assaulted a third has at most been ordered to pay $3000 as punishment for the sexual offending. File photo / Getty Images
Letter of the week
Belittling, insulting punishment for rape
Is it any wonder that the number of out-of-control youths is continually growing when there are headlines such as “Teen to pay $3k to rape
victims” (HoS, April 7).
How can that be an appropriate sentence for someone of any age who raped two girls and indecently assaulted a third?
And as the youth was under 16 at the time of the offences he was dealt with in the Youth Court even though such serious offending could have been transferred to the District Court.
Surely it’s time for these ridiculous sentences to end. He knew what he was doing, and to be told to pay each victim $1000 for emotional harm is belittling and insulting to them.
Ram raids, burglaries, car conversions, violent attacks, rapes, the list goes on and on. These youngsters know they can get away with their criminal behaviour because they already know how to work the system and because they are “so young”.
The sentencing judges need to think about the harm done to victims and sentence the perpetrators accordingly.
Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.
PM’s bad buzz
Christopher Luxon may impress some people like Heather du Plessis-Allan and Liam Dann with his corporate speak (ie buzzwords and slogans) but the reality is that a country is not a company (HoS, April 7).
The sooner he learns that and understands that he now doesn’t have the luxury of sending people down the road (downsizing) to be someone else’s problem, the sooner he is going realise that his words are just that.
To date he and his Government have been big on announcements, but slow on delivery.
Now where have I heard that before?
John Capener, Kawerau.
Derisory justice
How can Kiwi women ever be safe if men are given derisory sentences for sexual assault?
Judge Shortland should be re-educated and the Crown should appeal against this ludicrous travesty of justice.
Two rapes and a sexual assault attracting a sentence of a payment of $3000 is a total disgrace, following other equally disgraceful leniency.
Fraudsters regularly get longer sentences than rapists. What sort of society do my granddaughters live in?
Ian Pashby, France.
Unbelievable sentence
A teenage boy found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting three young teenage girls was ordered to pay each girl $1000 – a total sentence of $3000.
Absolutely unbelievable. I was left wondering what degree of punishment the presiding judge would have considered reasonable, if one of the girls had been his own daughter.
Philip Lenton, Somerville.
Parents, not friends
Bernard Walker’s letter about kids behaving badly starting at home hit the nail on the head (HoS, April 7).
Parents have become “friends” to their children and have not set the standards, values and boundaries in the home that will ensure their children grow up to respect others, and the importance of moderation and co-operation when living in a community/society.
Young people have been brought up nowadays knowing “their (supposed) rights”, “their entitlements”. They demand to be treated as adults from a very young age and, even though it is well-documented that they don’t have the maturity to make decisions for themselves, parents are too scared to stand up to them and just don’t set boundaries and say “no”.
It’s time for parents to be parents. That may mean upsetting the youngster a few times but the end result for the “whole” will be much better.
Paul Exton, Beach Haven.
Worthy ambassadors
It’s a shame that correspondent Ruth Pretty holds such a negative view of the White Ferns (HoS, April 7).
A look at a few stats might help change her mind. England are second in the world women’s ODI rankings, NZ are fifth.
NZ has a total pool of around 170,000 women cricketers, England has over 500,000. That’s a ratio of about 3:1 in England’s favour, so there are bound to be more experienced players available for international games.
The White Ferns are also transitioning from a stable unit to one where some players’ glory days might be behind them and some very young new faces are still trying to find their place. It happens in every sport.
Women’s cricket in NZ has been developing in leaps and bounds over the last few years. Maybe a season of watching women’s Super Smash will help convince Ms Pretty that there’s a good reason to support a team drawn from these players which is a great asset to NZ sport in general and worthy ambassadors for world cricket in particular.
Jeremy Coleman, Hillpark.
Cathedral user pays
The Christ Church Cathedral rebuild is just that.
Apart from the grotesque gothic architecture that looks completely out of place in Christchurch’s modern earthquake-proof architecture, the rebuild serves (as if they need it) as a constant reminder of the cataclysmic landscape, as it occurred on that fateful day and how ill-suited its architecture was in an earthquake.
Putting all that aside, why should non-Anglican taxpayers (who make up 88 per cent of the population) pay for the rebuild when the Anglican church as an entity holds $8.3 billion in assets and growing by the day.
Most of these assets are in property, along with donations from its presumably sole Anglican-only users, who if they are so doggedly determined to rebuild it should be the ones to pay for it.
Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.
Safe spaces
Correspondent Colin Parker asks if Māori and Pasifika can be given ”safe places” on campus to get away from racism, why can’t the university provide Jews with the same (HoS, April 7)?
Auckland University already has a synagogue. It also has a chapel for Christians and prayer rooms for Muslim students.
When Act spokesperson Parmjeet Parmar writes to NZ’s universities asking them about “divisive so-called ‘safe’ spaces” that don’t reflect “inherent differences”, will she be including these in her call for disestablishment as part of “entering the 21st century” – with the threat of withholding taxpayer funding if they don’t?
Morgan Owens, Manurewa.
TV trash
Maybe TV companies in New Zealand would do better if the content of their programming schedules was improved.
Across all of them we are fed an unpalatable supply of cringe-worthy, demeaning programmes which for a lot of us are a waste of time.
Whilst this crap is front and centre on TV these same companies have a great selection hidden on their on-demand streaming services.
Do they know who’s watching TV? Quite a lot of us have a working brain.
With such a poor selection of programmes, which seems to cater for the lowest common denominator, it’s no wonder we switch off or view elsewhere.
And one capable person can read the news cue cards. It doesn’t take two big-salaried readers.
Angela Thomas, Greenlane.
Sydney Mall Attack: Shopper confronts knife-wielding attacker with bollard, mall staff and bystanders praised