Page 1260 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 24 April 1990
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A man who showed a pornographic video to his step-daughter, 11, before raping her was sentenced to 10 years jail yesterday.
A Supreme Court jury in Brisbane found him guilty on four counts of having raped his de facto step-daughter.
Mr Justice de Jersey sentenced the man, 38, to 10 years' jail on each count, to be served concurrently.
He recommended the man, who had pleaded not guilty, be considered for parole after four years.
The judge said the man's shocking conduct was a misuse of his position of authority.
In the ACT we are not immune. I recall one incest case some years ago, in relation to which I was a prosecutor, in which a father was convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment for a number of rapes on his daughter when she was aged from 11 to 14. Part of his modus operandi was to show her pornographic material, including pornographic videos. So there are instances in which I think it is quite clear that this material is very harmful indeed.
Mr Moore has also said that only 3 per cent voted for the Family Team and he has tried to belittle the fact that this really is not an important issue to the Canberra community. It was interesting enough, during the run-up to the last local elections, for the media to conduct a number of opinion polls. I will quote now from an extract from the Channel 10 news at 6 pm on Capital Television on 5 January 1989. The reporter was Shamus Gonella, and the transcript reads:
As for X-rated videos the results were almost exactly opposite with only 37 per cent saying against. And 12 per cent undecided. While Labor voters were almost evenly divided on the issue, Liberal voters were strongly opposed.
But the big revelation of the poll was the division between men and women. While half of the men polled said they were in favour only one in four women agreed, 39 per cent of men did not favour the sale and hire of X-rated videos, but 63 per cent of women expressed their opposition. Those undecided were evenly distributed. Our ANOP researchers say they've never had such a huge gender difference on any subject in any poll conducted around Australia.
Here is information supplied by Mr Ken Begg, the chief of staff of Capital 7 on 6 January 1989. It is taken from the ANOP-Capital 7 opinion poll, and 1,200 voters were polled - quite a significant proportion in the ACT.
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