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.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
RSS