An Australian judge is now in the hot seat after a recording of him suggesting that incest and pedophilia are no longer "taboo" went public.
District Court Judge Garry Neilson said that just as more people accept homosexuality today than several decades ago, society may no longer see incest and pedophilia as "unnatural," according to RT.com. The comments were made in April during the trial of a 58-year-old man accused of repeatedly raping his younger sister during the '70s and early '80s.
"A jury might find nothing untoward in the advance of a brother towards his sister once she had sexually matured, had sexual relationships with other men and was now 'available,' not having [a] sexual partner," Neilson said according to Australia's Fairfax Media.
Neilson also said biggest reason why incest is still considered a crime is because of the high risk of genetic disorders in babies born from such relationships.
"But even that falls away to an extent [because] there is such ease of contraception and ready access to abortion," the judge said according to the news site.
Statements against the judge and calls for his suspension came pouring in after the comments were revealed last week, especially from activists against child abuse.
"To equate homosexuality, incest and the crime of child sexual assault is as ill-informed as it is outrageous," Cathy Kezelman, president of Adult Surviving Child Abuse, said according to The Sydney Morning Herald. "For it to be paraded by a Judge in Australia in 2014 during the time of the Royal Commission into Institutional Abuse, or at any given time, is beyond belief."
Hetty Johnston, founder of the anti-child sex abuse charity Bravehearts, said Neilson's statements are the "most outrageous," RT reported.
"I think the community deserves to be reassured that this is not a view that is shred among the judiciary."
Neilson is the same judge who gave a lenient sentence to a 55-year-old man who raped his teenage niece because he did not "treat her roughly."
In the April case, the defendant pled guilty to sexually assaulting his sister when she was 10 or 11, but pled not guilty to raping her when she was 18, according to RT.
Crown Prosecutor Sally Dowling SC has since filed a motion with the Court of Criminal Appeal asking for another judge to decide on the case due to the "misogynistic" sentiments he expressed towards the victim, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
