A Sydney, Australia judge who compared incest and paedophilia to homosexuality has been referred to the NSW Judicial Commission by NSW Attorney-General Brad Hazzard.
Mr Hazzard has also written to the Chief Judge of the District Court, requesting that Judge Garry Neilson not sit on any criminal trials until the commission has examined the matter.
"I was extremely concerned to read the comments of His Honour Judge Garry Neilson in regard to his views on incest," Mr Hazzard said in a statement.
"In my view the community would be rightly appalled at his reported comments. Incest is completely reprehensible, unacceptable, disgusting and criminal."
Fairfax Media reported on Thursday that Judge Garry Neilson has said that, just as gay sex was socially unacceptable and criminal in the 1950s and 1960s but is now widely accepted, “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”.
He also said the “only reason” that incest is still a crime is because of the high risk of genetic abnormalities in children born from consanguineous relationships “but even that falls away to an extent [because] there is such ease of contraception and readily access to abortion”.
Judge Neilson made the extraordinary comments in April in the case of a 58-year-old man, known for legal reasons as MRM, who is charged with repeatedly raping his younger sister in the family’s western Sydney home in 1981.
MRM has pleaded not guilty to the charge of sexual intercourse without consent, with an alternative charge of incest, and will face a jury trial in September.
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| NSW Attorney-General Brad Hazzard |
"I was extremely concerned to read the comments of His Honour Judge Garry Neilson in regard to his views on incest," Mr Hazzard said in a statement.
"In my view the community would be rightly appalled at his reported comments. Incest is completely reprehensible, unacceptable, disgusting and criminal."
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| Garry Neilson in 2003 |
Fairfax Media reported on Thursday that Judge Garry Neilson has said that, just as gay sex was socially unacceptable and criminal in the 1950s and 1960s but is now widely accepted, “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”.
He also said the “only reason” that incest is still a crime is because of the high risk of genetic abnormalities in children born from consanguineous relationships “but even that falls away to an extent [because] there is such ease of contraception and readily access to abortion”.
Judge Neilson made the extraordinary comments in April in the case of a 58-year-old man, known for legal reasons as MRM, who is charged with repeatedly raping his younger sister in the family’s western Sydney home in 1981.
MRM has pleaded not guilty to the charge of sexual intercourse without consent, with an alternative charge of incest, and will face a jury trial in September.
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