...Angela is obviously beyond saving. The effort by the state to claim the moral high-ground, using prosecution as a tool to condemn the individuals of a society, enthusiastically encouraged to abandon moral rectitude,( which the state itself encouraged), by decriminalising prostitution; then, little wonder, the Angelas of this life seek rewards in money for sexual services. The current unworkable laws allowing the free-run of prostitution, prove again to be a “laughable” failure!

...For once I agree with the author!

Well, the author does not agree with your bizarre interpretation of the situation.
Jennifer

An excellent article highlighting the plight of genuine victims of abuse. The poor child was let down by everybody in her life.

It also throws into relief the qualitative difference between such an experience and the minor issues that some people try to pass off as "abuse". Being "fearful" is a long way from being systematically raped over a period of time by dozens of men, yet it is now enshrined in our Family Law as an equivalent cause for action.

"1) For the purposes of this Act, family violence means violent,
threatening or other behaviour by a person that coerces or controls
a member of the person’s family (the family member), or causes
the family member to be fearful."

The fear doesn't even have to be reasonable...

There are going to be more cases in which Mum and the boyfriend do horrible things to children in their care, simply because there are going to be more fathers who are completely removed from their children's lives when the mothers of their children say terrible things about them in court, knowing them to be untrue and knowing there is no penalty for doing so.

It's not as bad as prostituting a 12 year-old perhaps, but it's still despicable.

Jennifer:

...Where I agree with your article, is in its defence of Angela as a victim. Where I believe your article strays from the “point”, is not to consider the users of the underage prostitute, as victimised innocents. My post criticized recent changes to laws covering prostitution, by the act of decriminalising the “sordid” industry. So effectively, what has happened in the “Angela” case, decriminalisation has abandoned the “Angelas” of this society, to the free and unregulated market for sexual services.

...Not once in your article do you mention this failing. A failing you, in your position, (you could only engineer by neglect to mention), for the sake of the greater claim you make, that the users of a prostitution service, openly advertised in a local newspaper, were not victims as well, but very low individuals who should all be “whipped” by the law for an act of inadvertence. You have exposed your “crocodile” tears by the omission, and again I expose a hidden agenda often laying shallow below the surface of "pretend" human rights abuse, or some-other such nonsense, bleating loudly from your articles.

I agree with the author, in that this poor child should not be obliged to attend any more court cases, and indeed I feel it would be difficult to get a conviction anyway, given the horrible circumstances.

Some of these 'men' who paid for sex with this girl may not have known they were committing acts of pedophilia, but some must have known she was under 18.

My hope is that all those men contract a deadly disease whereby their penis shrivels and falls off...

Prostitution is a lucrative business, and in demand. It is probably what we do not know is why this 12yo could pass as an 18yo. You can not advertise sex for sale in vic without a code number so the relevant bodies now who is doing the offering. The parents or guardians of this girl need to be dealt with by law, that is where the blame should concentrate. Sus your punishment is out-there but there can be circumstances, maybe.