Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Words (almost) completely fail me at the outrage that a Bahraini man sentenced to five years for paedophilia has had his sentence cut to just one year because his lawyer successfully argued that 'he had a mental condition that attracted him to young children'.
Well duh! That's what paedophilia is but that's all the more reason to make sure he's locked up for a long time and can't ever hurt another child.
There can be no justification for letting this man off so easily when there is little to no doubt that his 'mental condition' will still be with him when he is released in a year.
The punishment should fit the crime and the crime in this case is not only that a six-year-old boy was sexually abused but that he will be left with mental scars that will very probably have a negative affect on his behaviour for the rest of his life.
This boy will never be the same again and his innocence of youth has been lost forever.
Mental disorder or not, there can be no excuse for letting a paedophile walk free after only a year behind bars. If the judge was aware enough to accept the defendant couldn't control the urges of his mental condition, he should have been aware enough to, at the very least, sentence him to a conviction in a mental institute.
It's disgusting to me that all too often in this part of the world, the fact that a person claims they are unable to control their urges means that what they have done is OK.
If that's the case, surely I could find a lawyer and psychiatrist who will testify that I have an uncontrollable urge to be a multi-millionaire. That way I can go and rob a bank and be let off with little more than a slap on the wrist!
