Bizarre: Gender Bending leads to Prison

Maybe they should just let the victim give her a good.oldfashioned spanking as the proper medicine for her trickery! Just kidding.

I thought the sentence ridiculously harsh. You would get far less for mugging grannies or any number of violent crimes. And don't tell me that the other woman didn't realise what was going on. The trouble is these judges are all too often old school tie types without an ounce of compassion or common sense.

How long would you sentence the guy who poked holes in a condom and his girlfriend screamed "I never consented to that!" - because that's illegal too.

http://thestir.cafemom.com/crime/149037/man_pricks_holes_in_girlfriends
http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/is-poking-holes-in-condoms-a-sexual-assault

Difficult one. How about if it was the other way round, the woman poking holes in the condom so she might conceive? I ask this question as we know a couple where the wife, in her thirties, desperately wants a child and the husband doesn't. She is on the pill and may on the quiet stop taking it! I can't help thinking the chap is being selfish but I may be prejudiced as I greatly enjoyed family life.

Oh, agreed. Eight years in prison is ludicrously excessive (unless the sentence is suspended pending completion of probation and counseling) but, having said that, there still seems to be a dearth of information on the particulars of the case, because a lot of things could have caused the judge to take a more punitive stand. I'd be particularly interested in the victim and her mental state, although frankly, they both sound like mental cases to me...

I'm pretty sure, since they're married, that it wouldn't be illegal at all. It might certainly cause hard feelings and possibly divorce, but there's no crime there, since it's within the context of a marriage. There's a number or exceptions and legal privileges that married couples enjoy, that others don't. I don't think the husband would have any legal recourse either, even if he didn't want to be a father. He can't do anything about it and even if he leaves, he's still on the hook for child support for at least eighteen years and probably alimony too. He might refuse any other legal responsibilities and even refuse to acknowledge or have anything to do with the child but then of course he'd be a total, giant, gaping asshole of a human being, even if his wife deceived him. I'd also advise him to get a DNA test on the kid ASAP. It might all be a false alarm, at least as far as he's concerned.

When I first read that article, I checked the date to make sure it wasn't April 1st. I imagined a typical breakfast table conversation:

"Read that article, Dear. Do you believe it's true she was deceived into thinking she was with a man?"
"Well, she must have pretended to have a deep voice."
"That wasn't all she pretended to have..."

Hilarious!

There is actually quite a lot of information on this case: just Google (Gayle Newman). The more I read, the more convinced I am that there has been a massive miscarriage of justice. The real issue is not whether the length of the sentence is unjustified, but whether there was actually a crime committed at all. It sounds to me more like a clandestine Lesbian relationship that went wrong when Gayle said she wanted to come out, causing her erstwhile lover to freak out and instigate accusations that depend upon what to me sounds like a completely implausible story. There is a very interesting transcript of court proceedings online at the Journal.ie. There is also a support site on Facebook. I am told there is also a petition being organised by 3 British MPs calling for an urgent review, although I don't know where one can sign this.

I think that there were perhaps complications in the case that never fully came out in the press reporting. Clearly there was deceit and it may be that a prison sentence was appropriate (although I am not certain of that in my own mind). 8 years, however, seems almost vicious. I wouldn't be surprised if it was appealed.

... or even Gayle Newland


There seem to be 2 petitions which can be found here and here...