If you thought that the court finding on the Manada (Wolf Pack) rape case was shameful, then be prepared for even worse.

Since the sentence was made known (which caused a furore on the normal and social media) there have been three more controversial rape case sentences come to light.

The 50-year-old man who raped a minor had his sentence mitigated because the judge considered that being drunk was an attenuating circumstance. Well, at least he was found guilty of rape and not just sexual abuse. However…

A judge in Cantabria did not consider that the 5-year-old girl “had resisted” the sexual abuse of a neighbour. So, the culprit, who had enticed the child to his house with presents over a period of five years, was only sentenced to three years, nine months imprisonment and a compensation payment of 6,000 euros. The reasoning? In dubio pro reo (doubt favours the accused).

Feeling enough indignation yet? Let’s continue.

A judge in Barcelona sentenced a man to six years, six month’s imprisonment for sexual abuse and not rape (sexual aggression) because his 16-year-old niece had not offered resistance when he dragged her out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. No matter that the girl was in a state of shock and unable to react (rabbit-in-the-headlights).

But wait; there’s more! The girl who was gang raped by five men (one of whom was an off-duty policeman) in an apartment-block entrance, has been utterly humiliated because the law court had an “IT error” on its computer system where her case is stored, which allowed sick individuals to publish on the social media all her personal details and photographs of her.

Since then, all this information has appeared on forums and porn sites all over the world. Yes, that’s right — her face, name, full address, student ID and everything else about here is circulating on the world-wide web.

The people who leaked this information considered that the ‘poor rapists’ had suffered enough through the media and social media so it was only fair that she should as well.

But it doesn’t end there because this IT “slip” came to light last Friday and only yesterday — five days later – did the courthouse shut down its defectived computer system.

Some consider that it was not an IT defect but a deliberate leak of her personal information – yours truly amongst them.

So the question is, what woman; minor or otherwise, is going to report a rape after this little lot? The answer: very, very few brave females.

Can you imagine a rape victim having witnessed what has happened to the 18-year-old gang-rape victim, (before the trial, during the trial, the utterly inadequate court sentence and her crucifixion on the social media) going ahead and reporting a rape? Of course she won’t.

So, what exactly is wrong with the nation’s judges and judicial system?

Here’s a clue. The top body of the judicial system has decided to set up a 20-member commission to revise the existing laws governing sexual abuse/aggression. Not one of the commission members is a woman despite the fact that the majority of lawyers and judges in the country are women.

As a result of this incredibly insensitive choice, a group of Professors of Penal Law has sent an open letter to the commission members calling for all of them to resign from the commission and for a new commission to be set up with an equal number of male and female members.

The majority of university students are female, therefore it is not surprising that the majority of lawyer and judge graduates are female, but there is the good-old glass ceiling so that the top posts are occupied by cobweb-festooned old men who think that Franco had the right ideas.

The result: the victim was obviously asking for it; let’s go easy on the accused gentleman.

(News/Editorial: Spain)