The Attorney General is to look into a case in which a judge gave a man who raped a 10 year old girl a sentence of two years, reports The Guardian.

Keith Fenn, 24, was given concurrent two-year and 18-month jail sentences at Oxford crown court by Judge Julian Hall for two attacks on the girl in a park.

Because of the amount of time he has already spent in prison awaiting sentence, Fenn could be free in a few months.

Unsurprisingly, the sentence has provoked outrage from… well, all right-thinking people.

According to the BBC, the judge said “the girl had dressed provocatively and looked as though she was 16”.

Yep, that’s right. He said that a 10 year old girl was asking for it, essentially.

Meanwhile:

Lawyers for the defendants stressed that the sex had been consensual, and was only termed ‘rape’ because of the framework of law.

A 10 year old girl is not able to consent to sex in any meaningful manner. It is frankly frightening that any judge would think one could.

Dr Michele Elliott, director of Kidscape said the decision had left her “lost for words”.

She said: “It takes us back to the 1950s when the victim was blamed if they were dressed provocatively.

“No-one in my opinion could mistake a 10-year-old child, even dressed up, for a 16-year-old. They are just trying very hard to find excuses.

“You can never blame a child victim for sexual abuse when excusing the abuser of any kind of abuse.”

If the Attorney General does not overturn the sentence, the man will go free in only a few weeks.

Posted by Jess McCabe on 25 June 2007, at 7:33 PM