A WOMAN forced her husband to have sex with a 13-year-old girl, threatening both with a spear, because of bad spirits, a Darwin court heard today.
Savonne Scrubby, 33, has pleaded guilty to a charge of rape in the Northern Territory Supreme Court, saying she was the principal offender. With her plea, the prosecution dropped a charge of rape against the man.
| I don't buy it. Threaten me with a spear and the spear is going to be the only thing around that's hard. |
Defence lawyer Stewart O'Connell said Scrubby had pleaded guilty on the basis that she had enabled the offence. "Savonne Scrubby is not a rapist but believes she is solely responsible for the offence," Mr O'Connell said. The court heard her husband had obsessed about having sex with the girl for two years.
| He sounds like a mental giant, too. First he obsesses on having sex with kiddies. Then he tells his wife about it. |
In August 2003, Scrubby became overwhelmed from the pressure and ordered the man and the girl to have sex, threatening them with a spear and a knife, at a billabong in the Northern Territory outback, east of Katherine, the court heard. Prosecutor David Lewis said the man had told Scrubby several times throughout the day to ask the girl to have consensual sex with him.
| "C'mon, honey! Ask the nice little girl to have sex with me!" |
That evening, Scrubby became enraged at the man's interest in having sex with the girl. She armed herself with a 2m fishing spear, yelling that she wanted to kill them both, the court heard. "Scrubby became abusive and irrational, poked the spear into (the man) and threatened to spear both," he said. After the man had sex with the girl, Scrubby took the girl's clothing, hid it in the bush and disappeared. She walked 22km back to an outstation, arriving there early the next morning still carrying the spear and knife. The traditional Aboriginal woman believed a "mimi" (bad spirit) or witchcraft had intensified her feelings to a degree she had not felt before, Scrubby's lawyer, Mr O'Connell said. "After two years she finally gave in to (the man's) obsession to have sex with the girl, she just wanted it to be over," he said.
| I guess they don't have divorce in those parts. Or even desertion. |
It was agreed that Scrubby, a person of good character, accepted full responsibility for the girl's rape and was still on good terms with her. She was fully co-operative with police and freely admitted what she had done.
| That's the first person of good character I've ever heard of who ordered her old man to have sex with an underage girl at spearpoint. But maybe I've just led a sheltered existence... |
The prosecutor said it was not disputed that right from the start Scrubby forced both the man and the girl to have sex, "and a spear is a formidable weapon".
| Formidable enough to make me feel all limp and lifeless. |
This was a case of the older woman dominating a 13-year-old girl. "Ms Scrubby caused this to happen, albeit her emotional state, she put it in train," he said. The court should focus on what happened to the girl who was scared, crying and forced with weapons to have sex which she did not want to happen. Scrubby will be sentenced next week.
| The word "sordid" seems so inadequate. |
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