Sorry this ended up extremely SOC/tangential, most of my rants are a bit like that.

There are very few things that get me SERIOUSLY FUCKING ANGRY, and sex crime is a major furyswitch. Not a week goes by where I don't read some news story about paedophilia, rape, child sex abuse, prostitution, sex tourism, et cetera. These are just what I picked up TONIGHT, from news.com.au:

Principal allegedly abused 11yo girl

Student kept as a sex slave to pay off debt

Repeat child-abuser to be deported

Teen sexually assaulted in Sydney's west

Ex-cult leader charged with sexually abusing 26 children

Sex-victim's silent number published in phone book

Sex-for-favours scandal in Melbourne branch of Australian Tax Office

I understand the basics of our legal system, and I understand the notion of 'innocent until proven guilty.' I really do. Australia's legal system is fair and just and all that rot, which is how any decent legal system should be. What I don't understand is why there are as many laws protecting the guilty as there are the victims, if not more. I'll take exception to the alleged guilty folk, seeing as it IS alleged. Still...

I am sick and tired of these mongrels constantly being protected and granted anonymity. I don't understand how anybody could ever think that these people could ever be fully-rehabilitated and eventually be let back out into society, especially paedophiles. I am sick and tired of sex being 'shameful.' I am sick of people making excuses for the obvious lack of support for sex-abuse victims.

For all intents and purposes, I did the right thing as far as my rape was concerned. I told the police, they arrested my rapist, we went to court, he went to jail. Only afterwards did I realise the gravity of the choices I made to tell someone about it. Granted, initially, I didn't tell the police of my own accord -- my work at the time asked me to tell the police or risk losing my job -- completely warranted, seeing as my rapist stalked me at work and attacked my bosses with a pair of scissors. They had every right to ask me to notify authorities. But I'm glad I did, otherwise, I'd be living my life with such a huge fear of everything, even greater than I feel now.


My ex-brother-in-law was done for DUI a little while back. He's 21yo and holds a provisional licence. He's also an A-grade fuckwit, but living his life as any normal 21yo male would. One of the things that shits me about him is his constant spouting off about the police. He hates them, and I know he only started hating them because his friends hate them, too. Any poking will result in him spouting off about how his life is ultimately crap because the police are out to get him and anybody who speeds or does drugs or anything remotely illegal. He's an idiot.

Grow the fuck up.

I wasn't a goody-two-shoes authority-arselicker, nor was I ever a bad-ass, at least not as far as the law was concerned. No doubt I would've been the perfect detention-centre posterchild, had I hung around longer and not had the living bejeebus scared out of me... BUT. Laws exist for a reason. And I am fed up with arseholes harping on about how much they hate the law and how much they hate the police. I've done a few illicit things in my life, but I did them with the full knowledge that they were illegal and I knew that if I were caught, I'd have to face the consequences. You can hate whatever you want, so long as you know what the hell you're on about. After you've sorted yourself out, go hell-for-leather. Hate away - fantastic - if your opinion is educated, it doesn't really matter if you're wrong or right (who's to say?), so long as you know what you are talking about and you believe what you are saying - it's what makes for great debate.

Having said all of that, the police and the legal system did NOT fail me when I needed them. I was kept up-to-date on proceedings, I was checked on to make sure that I was okay and as comfortable as I could manage, I was given options on support and counselling, and my communication with my QC (Queen's Counsel) and the primary detective handling my case ended long after my rapist went to jail. In fact, the detective handling my case went above and beyond his call of duty -- he came over to keep me updated, after-hours, to give me some documents, and got caught in a huge spiderweb. He also tried to speak with my parents to try to get them to release my personal documents (birth certificate and certificate of citizenship), but they didn't believe he was a police officer because he wasn't in a squad car, even though he showed them his ID. God, my parents suck. But I digress. I was put on the Victim's Information Register, where I was kept up-to-date with my rapist's whereabouts, and I was able to access all my information and transcripts whenever I needed them. This is the good that can come out of speaking up.

So yeah, I'm not sure where I'm going with this post -- I'm extremely pissed off, slightly drunk, and tired. It's 2.30am and I am thinking about the scum of the Earth. Exactly what I wanted to be doing on a lonely rainy night. Brilliant.

It just saddens me, as a rape survivor and a mother of a beautiful little girl, to know that there is much more of this going on that we will never know about. It saddens me that one day, my little girl will grow up to be a woman and have to deal with all this bullshit around her. I won't be able to protect her then, only hope that I've raised her with enough common-sense and a full awareness that there are right royal bastards out there, but that there are also some really great people out there, too. I want my girl to give everyone a fair go, but not be taken for a ride.

Ahh, world, why do you suck at life?

Oh. FYI, for anybody interested, Hopoate was banned for 17 games and consequently sacked from the Manly Sea Eagles. You can read about it here.

Oh. And I'd like to hear from the following people, as they seem to have disappeared from the face of this Earth - MHE, Recon, Yadig.

Oh. And I'm working on personal replies to people who have contacted me before, during, and after my blogattical/hiatus. Thank you for loving me.

PS. I applaud the people who have the courage to notify the authorities, and I applaud the authorities that work hard to catch the bastards who are out there robbing people of their livelihood. BourbonBird says - COPS ARE TOPS.