Australian jailed for gay sex in Fiji

[rooboy]

An Australian tourist has been jailed in Fiji for two years for what the judge called a "shameful" and "disgusting" homosexual act.

Retired university lecturer Thomas Maxwell McCoskar, 55, and a Fijian man had pleaded guilty to having sex in Nadi over Easter and asked the court for leniency, the Fiji Times reported.

Gay sex is illegal in Fiji, a nation of conservative Christian values, and carries a jail sentence of up to 14 years.

In sentencing the pair yesterday, Magistrate Syed Muhktar Shah said the crimes committed by McCoskar, from Victoria, and Dhirendra Nandan, 23, were "something so disgusting that it would make any person vomit".

He said McCoskar's actions bordered on pedophilia.

"If you wanted to have fun, you should have stayed in Australia instead of trying to come to Fiji and exploit our young boys," he said.

"With you being a former lecturer, you should have known that such indecent acts are illegal."

The newspaper reported that the pair told the court there was nothing wrong with what they did and Nandan threatened to commit suicide if jailed.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Australian-jailed-for-gay-sex-in-Fiji/2005/04/06/1112489546162.html

[benburch]

1. How can you "border on" Pedophilia?

And what what this "indecent act?"

This sounds like we don't have this whole story.

[rooboy]

2. No, I think you do have the whole story, unfortunately...

we're looking at a judge who thinks that a 55 year-old man having sex with a consenting 23 year-old man is pedophelia. Simple as that, I think - the judge can't handle the gay aspect and the age difference.

[benburch]

3. If so, that is beyond sad.

Heck, as long as your willing partner is one day older than what the statute says, I'm cool with it, but when they make such veiled descriptions of things, it always causes me to wonder what's up with that?