Not this namby-pamby “assault” euphemism that it’s called today? Perhaps the reason sentences are so light is because we stopped using the offensive language to describe the heinous crimes.

I am taking this Toronto Star article and reprinting in full, to allow you to see just how much dancing around the facts is done to protect the easily offended, and how it ends up skewing the verdict and sentencing:

A young Mississauga man convicted yesterday of sexual assault disgraced himself and his family when he used his 16-year-old victim as his “personal plaything,” a judge said yesterday.

But by pleading guilty, Barton Reeder saved the girl from the pain of having to testify at a trial, Justice James Keaney said.

“I’m satisfied this was a one-time error in judgment, albeit of staggering proportions,” Keaney told Reeder, 19, before sentencing him in a Brampton courtroom to a 21-month conditional sentence, including house arrest for the first year.

Reeder pleaded guilty to one count of participating in a sexual assault with Philip Perry, also 19, an offence often described by police as a gang assault, in connection to an incident that occurred in the early hours of Feb. 25, 2007, at a Mississauga home.

Perry pleaded guilty to the same offence last month and received the same sentence.

Two youths remain before the court and appear headed for trial next year in connection with the case that attracted intense media and Facebook coverage when the arrests occurred.

The specific roles of the two convicted men — and the alleged participation by the youths – remain under a publication ban until evidence is presented at the youths’ trials.

Reeder, now attending college, refused to say anything before being sentenced.

But Keaney warned him he would be imprisoned if he broke any of the numerous court-ordered conditions imposed on him as well as on Perry previously.

The youths were 17 at the time of the incident. Their identities as well as the name of the victim remain protected by Canada’s youth laws along with any information that could lead to their identities.

Crown prosecutor Carrie Stoddart and Reeder’s lawyer Barry Fox yesterday submitted a joint submission on sentencing, which Keaney accepted.

At the time of the arrests, Peel police alleged the rape of the young girl had been videotaped on a cellphone and then shown to various students in the cafeteria of the victim’s high school.

Police also previously revealed that alcohol was involved and that the victim was unconscious and never knew she’d been sexually assaulted until the video of the incident surfaced at the school.

Following the first year of house arrest, Reeder will be under a strict 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for the remaining nine months.

He can leave home for one hour, three times each week for physical activity and three hours each weekend for personal shopping.

He can also leave for employment, school and health reasons.

He must also attend counselling and perform 100 hours of community service.

Perry is attending university so his house arrest is served in his dormitory, court previously heard.

Both were ordered to submit DNA samples. Their names have been put on Ontario’s sexual assault registry.

Disgusting. The gang-RAPE of a young girl is euphemized beyond recognition, till it sounds as if she merely had her pigtails pulled in the schoolyard. Her RAPE is videotaped and broadcast, further humiliating her. And her RAPISTS get house arrest and counseling? Heck, why don’t they just get a slap on the back from the boys club, and a cool “Atta boy!”?

Justice James Keaney must not have children, or must be a bit of a sadist himself, to take this so lightly. A “one-time error in judgment”?? A girl was gang-RAPED! He is neither “Honourable” nor “Just” for these actions he has taken in punishing RAPISTS. And for the Crown to be party to this sentencing request means that this girl never had anyone on her side.

The law is an ass if we have asses practicing it. Whatever happened to lynchings, anyway?

A tip from a Canadian resident ended Richard Steve Goldberg’s stint on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, and the alleged child molester is now awaiting extradition, the bureau said.

According to the Web site for the television show, “America’s Most Wanted,” Goldberg had been seeing a nonprofit counselor under the alias Terry Wayne Kearns. He allegedly told the counselor he was an American fugitive, but the charges against him were “trumped up,” the Web site said.

The counselor told a friend, who found Goldberg on the FBI Web site, according to “America’s Most Wanted.”

The 61-year-old former engineer had been on the run for six years after he was charged in 2001 with producing child pornography, two counts of possessing child pornography and six counts of performing lewd acts on a child, the FBI said. He also faces unlawful flight charges.

The whiskey must be flowing in Newfoundland for St. Patrick’s Day, because I just got the most pathetic bit of hate mail I’ve seen in a while. Normally something so uninspired usually comes from someone who has English as a second language (and while the average Newfie can be quirky in their speech, they do still speak English!).

It turns out that this tired statement

You are obviously an ugly fatty who’s not getting any action from any attractive guys sweetheart

is from Lib-left criminal lawyer Averill Baker from Mount Pearl Park, Newfoundland. The whiskey and screech must be so plentiful that Ms. Baker didn’t notice my email policy to the side of the screen. Oh well, not my problem…

Just think. Someone in Newfoundland is going to need a lawyer for something. Someone who can not only present the facts of the case clearly, but who can win over the jury with a breathtaking closing argument.

Based on the unsolicited email I received, they will probably want to call someone other than Averill Baker.