Why didn't dad press charge?

A letter came in last week from a reader that wanted me to touch on the relationship topic of hot-heads and compromise and while I don't have the page space this week to give it it's full due, I want to let the reader know that I will put my all into it for next week.

For now though, I'm feeling the need to have a little rant at the fact that not one, but two child molesters have had their sentence all but dropped this week.

One man who was sentenced to three years for raping a 10-year-old boy has had two thirds of that time slashed from his sentence and another, who was given 10 years for his crime against a 14-year-old girl, will now be allowed to roam free after serving only a tenth of his allotted time after the father of the girl dropped the charges.

WHAT?!?!

It never ceases to amaze me how cavalier some people can be about what amounts to one of the worst crimes imaginable. Putting any child through such an ordeal is something most of us can't even imagine let alone condone.

Quite aside from the hideousness of what the child has to go through at the time, there's also the psychological scars they're left with for the rest of their lives. The innocence and happy childhood every child has to the right to expect has been ripped away first by the criminal and then again by those in a position to protect them.

In the first case the mind boggles at the fact that the defendant was only given three years for raping a child in the first place, but to then have a judge, whose principle thought should be for the well being of the victim, cut that sentence to only one year is just too shocking for words.

As for the second case, I don't have the words in my vocabulary to describe how disgusting it is to see a father drop charges against someone who abused his daughter.

First she's attacked when there's no one to help her and then the one person she should be able to rely on to protect her from harm, does all but condone the attackers actions.

More than anything else, a parent's duty is to protect their child from harm and if, as will happen in life, you sometimes fail, then justice should step in to redress the balance.

These two children have been let down in the worst possible way. Not only were they subjected to unthinkable suffering, but the message that they have now taken away from it is that what happened to them doesn't matter, justice isn't theirs and there is no one out there that is prepared to protect them. They simply don't matter.

Their innocence and the happy childhood every child has the right to expect has been ripped away, first by the criminal and then again by those who are supposed to protect them.

And those who go around harming the young and innocent get little more than a slap on the wrist ... and a chance to do it all again a year down the line.