An important warning for all.

[Apollo]

  This is probably not the right place for this but if I can prevent this happening to anyone else then it's got to be good thing. Please read the following with an open mind.

My brother in-law has just been sentenced to 12 years in prison for a sexual assault on a 14 year old boy.
He is innocent. I know you are going to say that peolple convicted of crimes say that all the time but in this case it is DEFINATELY true.
He runs a rock climbing centre and therefore has contact with a lot of young people. One of this people ( an evil little drug addict ) out of the thousands he has had contact with over the years decided that as my brother-in-law is gay and as he hates gays he would make up a story about being raped by him. We of course thought this would all go away but today he got sentenced to 12 years with a minimum term of 6 1/2 years.
Please, please don't put yourselves in a position where this could happen to you because believe me it could happen to anyone.
Be very careful who you are alone with at all times and NEVER think that it couldn't happen to you or someone you know.
I'm sorry to have to tell you all this devastating news but it is helping me to share this with a community of people I have come to like and enjoy the company of.
Thankyou for your understanding, feel free to comment if you wish.

[SirPeale]

Oh man, that sucks.  Twelve years old, and got it in his head to do that?  Man.

There's got to be a way to get the kid to recount his testimony.

[nipsmg]

Apollo,

I'm very very sorry to hear about this.  It's a shame, but things liek this are becoming more and more common.  I'm assuming this was in the us, where we like to trasure the "Innocent until proven guilty" thing, but it's very much the other way around in many cases.

The unfortunate thing is, also, that even if he is innocent, and is fully exonerated at some point, he'll always be labelled a child molestor, even if they link DNA or prove without any possible doubt that he's innocent.

I am extremely saddened to hear this.. I wish you and your family the best.

--NipsMG

[shmokes]

I'm guessing this is in Australia, since I seem to remember Apolllo lives there.  I know absolutely nothing about the criminal justice system down under, but this could just as easily have happened in America.  I have VERY little faith in the American "justice" system (and I'm studying to be a lawyer).  I hope he has an option to appeal, and that there is a reasonable posibility of success upon appeal (that is, of course, assuming that he is innocent as you say).  

I have a question...I hope it's not insensitive of me to deviate from the subject as I'm sure this is a devastating ordeal for you and your family, but is gay marriage legal in Australia (or wherever you live)?  I ask because you refer to him as your brother-in-law, which would imply that he is married to one of your siblings, which is impossible in America (with a very few exceptions), unless of course he's married to a sister, but that would be kind of an unfulfilling relationship for a gay man.  

[microwrx]

I'm guessing this is in Australia, since I seem to remember Apolllo lives there.

New Zeland according to his profile but not that far off.

I have a question...I hope it's not insensitive of me to deviate from the subject as I'm sure this is a devastating ordeal for you and your family, but is gay marriage legal in Australia (or wherever you live)?

Not in Australia from memory.  I seem to remember some debate about it some time ago and that our PM was against it so wouldn't let it through the system, same for same sex couple adopting I think.  edit..Just had a quick look on the net and found that although same sex marriages are not recognised/legal according to Federal law, same sex couples are recognised under some individual states State law.

I ask because you refer to him as your brother-in-law, which would imply that he is married to one of your siblings, which is impossible in America (with a very few exceptions), unless of course he's married to a sister, but that would be kind of an unfulfilling relationship for a gay man.  

Wifes brother maybe?

[shmokes]

Wifes brother maybe?

I think I may be going retarded.  That never even crossed my mind.

[abrannan]

That's horrible, my sympathies to you and your family.  It sucks that we live in a world where not only do things that your brother-in-law was accused of happen, but they happen enough that false accusations like this are incorrectly believed.  My wife works with children, and did she had to go through a full six-month background investigation before she could begin work.  My father was a Boy Scout leader and they had a rule where there must be at least two adults and two children in the room at all times to prevent this sort of thing from happening.