BF2S Forums Silly Aussies: 12 year old to be sentenced for rape

A 12-year-old boy who raped a young child will be sentenced after failing to convince a court he was wrongly convicted.

The boy - who cannot be named - was found guilty of rape and attempted rape at the end of a judge-only trial in the Children's Court at Townsville earlier this year.

During the trial, the court was told the boy raped a four-year-old boy in May 2007, and tried to rape his own three-year-old brother a short time later.

The boy told his father he had raped the child because he was "horny", it was revealed at the trial.

Under Queensland law anyone under 14 years cannot be held criminally responsible for an offence unless it can be shown they had the capacity to know they ought not have done the act.

The trial judge found the boy did have the capacity to know he should not have committed the offences.

The boy's lawyers took the case to the Court of Appeal in Brisbane in May in an attempt to have the conviction quashed.

They argued that the guilty verdict was "unreasonable" and "against the weight of the evidence".

They also argued the trial judge gave insufficient weight to the evidence of a psychiatrist called by the defence.

The Court of Appeal in Brisbane on Friday dismissed the application, finding that the trial judge correctly ruled the boy knew that what he was doing was wrong.

The boy will now be sentenced for the two sexual offences.

Last edited by Rohirm (2009-06-20 01:13:03)