Jamie Cullen, now 21, was jailed for two years after a judge said he believed there may be some doubt about his knowledge of the girl’s age, but he would have been aware she was under 16.
Man jailed for having sex with 13-year-old at party (From The Northern Echo),
Cullen claims he didn't know, the sister of the victim disagrees. Cullen is sentenced to two years.
Rashid claims ignorance of the law, the Judge doesn't believe him, cites he naive and sexually immature contrary to the facts such as pre-installed condom, and is given a suspended 9 months sentence.
Very interesting.
Sorry it took so long to find something showing the disparity, but since UK Courts document statutory rape as rape, it's hard to research.
My point exactly. This is the one that made the news, because he actually got two years.
5 years age difference versus 8 years age difference.
One well aware of the underagedness, one claiming ignorance.
One found by the courts to be sexually naïve, the other presumably not.
And yet their sentences are not a far cry from one another. Both found guilty. One on parole for 2 years, while the other one does time and probably will be paroled in that time.
A judge has a certain amount of leeway in assessing individual cases, and this case isn't the preferential treatment of this individual that the 'news'paper tries to make it out to be.
It does however raise a very important question, and I suspect that is why the school's name was left out of it, of whether a school can teach its pupils things that fly in the face of the law of the land.