Posted on 10/30/2006 1:22:07 PM PST by Fred Nerks
There is something deeply disturbing about this case. Rape is always something vile, violent and unconscionable. That it should happen in a gang of up to 14 members, when its youngest victim was 16, is bad enough. That the rapists are unrepentant, and with one Muslim "spokesman" now saying that the leaders of the gang should be "honoured and respected", makes the case more sickening still.
Last December, riots took place on Cronulla Beach between white gangs and Lebanese Muslim gangs. Mark Steyn commented that one fault of the riots lay in young Muslims' refusal to integrate. We quoted from his article:
In Sydney in 2002, the leader of a group of Lebanese-Australian Muslim gang-rapists was sentenced to 55 years (halved on appeal).
The lads liked to tell the lucky lady that she was about to be "fucked Leb-style" and that she deserved it because she was an "Australian pig". It was the sentence that was "controversial". As Monroe Reimers wrote to the Sydney Morning Herald: "As terrible as the crime was, we must not confuse justice with revenge. Where has this hatred come from? How have we contributed to it? Perhaps it's time to take a good hard look at the racism by exclusion practised with such a vengeance by our community and cultural institutions."
But for many Australians, the case of the rape gang led by Bilal Skaf (pictured above left) created nothing but rage and resentment at the brazenness of the perpetrators.
As Mark Steyn said, Bilal Skaf was sentenced on 15 August 2002 to 55 years' jail for leading a series of rapes which took place in and around Sydney in 2000. The sentencing report makes for grim reading. Justice Michael Finanne states that the gang's attacks were coordinated using cellular phones, and led to young girls being lured away, sometimes on the pretext of being taken off to smoke marijuana, and then being met by other youths in vehicles. The details of what the girls were subjected to are horrific. The sentencing report from 2002 is found at the foot of this article. It is graphic, and shocking.
Unfortunately, Bilal Skaf's conviction for the attack on their youngest victim, a 16-year old girl, which happened in Gosling Park, Greenacre, on August 12, 2000, was quashed in 2004. It was discovered that during the trial, two jurors had independently gone to the scene of the crime to conduct "their own investigations". As a result, the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal overturned the convictions of Bilal Skaf and his younger brother Mohammed. Mohammed Skaf, previously unnamed because he had been a minor, was 17 at the time of the rape.
The victim of the Gosling Park rape attack had been too scared to once again confront her assailants, and at one stage charges were withdrawn. But laws were changed in New South Wales, and these allowed the victim to respond to the court in a retrial using her previous evidence from the 2002 trial. This was read out in question and answer form by a solicitor and a prosecutor.
According to the Melbourne Age, the retrial led to the two brothers being reconvicted of the Gosling Park rape incident in April of this year. 24-year old Bilal Skaf was found guilty on two counts of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent in company. Mohammed Skaf was convicted of being an accessory after the fact.
The two men were already convicted of the other rapes in which they had been involved, and were in prison, but on Friday (July 28), the two men were handed down their sentences. Mohammed Skaf was sentenced to 15 years' jail, with a minimum of seven and a half years to spent incarcerated, for his part in oranising the Gosling Park rape(s).
Jane Mathews, acting NSW Supreme Court judge, sentenced Bilal Skaf to a minimum of eleven years' jail, additional to the 22 years' minimum jail for the other rapes he committed.
Bilal Skaf briefly smiled when Justice Mathews sentenced him. When he was originally convicted in 2002, he had laughed. When he had received his sentence in 2002 he had sworn at the judge.
Justice Mathews said that the attack by 14 men was "cruel, callous and degrading".
Mohammed Skaf had befriended the 16 year old, known in court proceedings as Miss D. She had known him for six months, and her mother knew him. Skaf had suggested that they drive to the city center of Sydney. She went to get in the car for the drive at 9pm, and found two other men, Ibrahim and Michael, already inside the vehicle.
As they drove, the males had been using their mobile phones and conversing in Arabic. Before Miss D had got into the car, Mohammed had been talking to Bilal about the plan. The car was stopped at Gosling Park. The men tried to persuade the teenager to have sex with them, and Mohammed Skaf tried to use various plays to persuade her not to leave the car.
A car and a white van arrived. Mohammed then disappeared. Bilal Skaf tried to get Miss D to "go for a walk" with him, and when she refused he grabbed her by the hair and threw her onto the ground. With up to 14 associates holding the girl down, Bilal Skaf committed vaginal rape, and others digitally penetrated her. When Skaf had done, another man claimed it was his turn and raped her. One man held a gun to her head and kicked her in the stomach.
The girl, described by the judge in the 2002 trial as "exceptionally brave" then fled, and ran across the park to a telephone box. As she was in the phone box, the van drew up and one of the attackers drew a gun, ordering her to get in the van. She was screaming, and when a man came round the corner and walked forward, the gang fled. The man took her to his apartment and she phoned a friend who came to take her home.
The effect of the sentencing upon the two men means that Bilal Skaf will serve at least 32 years' jail for the three gang rape incidents. His earliest possible date for release will be February 11, 2033, when he will be 51. He could serve a maximum of 38 years. Mohammed Skaf will serve a minimum of eighteen and a half years, and will become eligible for parole on July 1, 2019, when he will be 36.
The mother of Miss D said outside the court: "I've spoken to my daughter today. She's very, very happy. She cried, she laughed. She's not here today, so obviously it has affected her to the point where she can't have anything to do with this."
"She'll never forget it but hopefully she'll be able to talk about it," the mother said. "They would not be sitting in jail this long if it was not for the new laws (which allowed Miss D to testify without confronting her assailants) and the media attention."
The nature of the three gang rapes, involving forced oral sex, shocked even prisoners. While Bilal Skaf had been originally confined in Long Bay Correctional Centre, there was a plot by other prisoners to inject him with blood tainted with the HIV virus. As a result, he was transferred to the maximum security Goulburn Gaol.
The dramas did not cease there. While he was residing in Goulburn Super-Max prison, in July 2003, telephone threats were made to the police, saying that if Bilal Skaf was not released within three days, staff at Goulburn Local Court would be shot.
During Skaf's stay in Goulburn, he came into contact with Zeky (Zak) Mallah, (pictured right). In December 2003, Mallah became the first person to be arrested (subsequently acquitted) under new terrorism laws. He served two years in jail for threatening to kill Commonwealth officers, but was acquitted on two charges of preparing for a terrorist act.
Details of Mallah's trial can be found here and here. He had allegedly plotted to shoot up the offices of the ASIO, the nation's intelligence agency, or the Foreign Affairs Department in Sydney, after he was refused a passport to travel to Lebanon in 2002. Mallah now acts as "spokesman" for the brothers.
Zeky Mallah, according to News/com.au and the Courier Mail, stood outside the Supreme Court, and delivered an impassioned eulogy to the two thug rapists. He said: "Bilal Skaf and Mohammed Skaf should be more honoured and respected for the crimes they committed, if they did, because at least these two have not killed any of the victims like the American soldiers have (in Iraq)."
"It is okay to label this young man and his brother as rapists who deserve 55 years more or less according to your judges, which in reality is life imprisonment."
"But it is not okay to label some American soldiers who rape innocent young Iraqi women as American rapists."
A fine example of Muslim logic. Because they did not kill their victims, then Mohammed and Bilal Skaf should be "honoured and respected".
I blame the poor example of the "prophet" for such hideous travesties of logic. Call a rapist paedophile, mass-murdering thief a "messenger of Allah", and you give his followers a green light to condone any atrocity.
Below is the sentencing report from 2002, by Justice Michael Finnane. It contains graphic descriptions of acts of rape and degradation. You have been warned
I sure hope the big burly men of the Australian prisons have smiles on their faces when they teach these sadistic animals what rape means.
For 55 solid years.
He's looking forward to his new boyfriend/cellmate.
No - bury this dirtbag up to his waist UPSIDE DOWN. As he slowly suffocates, let him be sodomized to death.
ROPMA!
):^(
Typical of the liberal spinmeisters. Analyze, analyze and in the end say it really isn't their fault but the fault of law abiding citizens. Who gives a rip where the hate comes from? The crimes need to be punished. That's called justice and not revenge.
That's why I voted for Patty Murray times, in the last election.
Kill the bastards..............slowly.
I've heard this repeated as if it were some sort of liberal received truth - in fact there is nothing wrong with retribution in the exaction of justice. If it is systematically denied that aspect does not evaporate, it devolves to the hands of the citizens. Vigilantism is not some weird Western U.S. phenomenon, it is nearly universal in history within societies too naive or too corrupt to employ retribution in justice. It is the luxury of a soft and decadent society to pretend that it may be done away with. IMHO.
Wonder how Bubba will tell The Smiler he's about to get it in the big house??
Justice would have been turning the "young lads" into Eunuchs, and sending them to Saudi Arabia, or other Muslim/Arabian land, to Guard some rich old man's harem.
"...she was screaming, and when a man came round the corner and walked forward, the gang fled. The man took her to his apartment and she phoned a friend who came to take her home."
This is the part that I have trouble with. This man who came to her assistance was disturbing a crime scene, he should have been punished, instead of the youths, who were just being a bit playful at the time.
(that's it, I'm done being a liberal for today)
Obviously sarcasm, but if that man had a gun illegally, who knows how this would have turned out.
I sure hope the Aussies know that vigilantism is no way to cure this cancer.
What do you mean?
The packrape of a young girl for which those of the perps who were identified and charged and given long sentences is what al-Hilali, the 'Rape Mufti' is deliberately 'confusing' with adultery in his 'ramadan speech'
The majority of the Lebanese muslim community support him. This is the passage that links to the rapists:
"But in the event of adultery, the responsibility falls 90 per cent of the time with women. Why? Because the woman possesses the weapon of seduction. She is the one who takes her clothes off, cuts them short, acts flirtatious, puts on make-up and powder, and goes on the streets dallying. She is the one wearing a short dress, lifting it up, lowering it down, then a look, then a smile, then a word, then a greeting, then a chat, then a date, then a meeting, then a crime, then Long Bay Jail, then comes a merciless judge who gives you 65years..."
The sentences were for RAPE not adultery! He has some 5,000 Lebanese supporters in Sydney...most of whom support Hezb'allah, many have dual citizenship, many live in Lebanon for a part of the year(where the men have their 'other three wives' and numerous children) - they were the 'evacuees' who complained bitterly that the Australian government didn't act quickly enough to get them out...a bunch of terrorist free-loaders who are here for the welfare.
And an embarrassment to the larger muslim community, who have been trying to get rid of the Mufti (a member of the Muslim Brotherhood)for years.
Most of the Lebanese muslims came here during the 1970's - it's a lot like having thousands of 'palestinians' living in enclaves in Sydney.
[While Bilal Skaf had been originally confined in Long Bay Correctional Centre, there was a plot by other prisoners to inject him with blood tainted with the HIV virus.
methinks he will never see the light of day again, one way or the other...]
Yep. The Muzzies made a serious cultural mis-calculation when they decided to screw with the Aussies.
Prophetic words.
BUMP
Let me tell you a story about an Australian grandmother whose granddaughter was raped. The police would do nothing. So she found out where the two scum hung out. She took their pictures. She showed the pictures to the granddaughter who was in the hospital, recovering.
She then got her 9mm that she wasn't stupid enough to turn over to the government. She went to the rapists' apartment.
She shot one where it really hurt. The other was begging for mercy. She shot him there as well.
The doctor said that one would never function in a normal way again. The other could use his apparatus, but not for sex.
Vigilantialism does work. And it does work wonders.
Tongue put extremely in cheek.
Tongue put extremely in cheek. The rise of any kind of ism would be welcomed to fight these koranimals.
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