Australian police and child welfare officers are to investigate the case of a girl forced to admit she was raped during a radio stunt in which she was strapped to a lie detector, officials said yesterday.
The 14-year-old broke down on air after her mother, who volunteered her for the commercial radio segment, began pressing her about whether she was sexually active, knowing she had been assaulted.
“I’ve already told you the story about this, and don’t look at me and smile because it’s not funny,” said the girl, who was strapped to a polygraph machine. “Oh OK, I got raped when I was 12 years old.”
Host Kyle Sandilands’ response: “Right and is that the only sexual experience you’ve had?” prompted a barrage of online criticism and phone calls to the Sydney station demanding he and co-host Jackie O resign or be sacked.
Psychologists, child protection and rape crisis groups slammed Wednesday’s stunt as exploitative, insensitive and in bad taste.
New South Wales State Community Services Minister Linda Burney said she felt “sick” when she heard the segment and had asked child welfare officers and police to investigate.
“Whether or not they knew the claim of a rape is irrelevant,” Burney said. “The fact they had a 14-year-old girl there asking her about sex is the focus and the inappropriate action here.”
Burney also questioned the mother’s role, saying she had moral obligations toward her daughter.
“I hope that the parent involved is asking themselves whether or not they were very wise in what seemed like a fun activity, particularly if she was aware that the rape had taken place,” Burney said.
Sandilands, who is also a judge on the reality TV show Australian Idol and is famed for his blunt and inflammatory remarks, hit back at his critics, saying he had “no idea” about the girl’s past.
“An apology is an apology. I’ve apologized to anyone that it offended, I apologized to the girl,” Sandilands said. “Unfortunately rape happens in society. We didn’t know the poor kid had had that situation happen to her.”
He said the revelation stunned him into silence and admitted his response had not helped the situation.
“It’s sad, it was awful. I instantly felt terrible for the girl and the mother. I just wish that I’d chosen my words a bit more cleverly,” he said.
The communications authority said it had received a large volume of correspondence about the incident, but could not act until the girl herself made a complaint.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including