In yet another puzzling decision, handed down in a Melbourne court, a young ‘P’ plater has avoided being sent to gaol for killing a teenager as the judge feared for his safety because he is a ‘cross dresser’.

So it appears fine to kill someone, so long as you have an excuse as to either, why you did it, or, why you should not be punished.

The victims of crime must be wondering why they bother trying to make a difference.

Boy, is it little wonder society is crumbling.

Add that case to the chick who got off for drink driving because she had a long commute home from the pub near her work!

The cross-dressing is just something the media emphasised to gain our attention. The young man has Aspergers Syndrome. The judge would have been looking into the whole picture and given that this is a young person, this was an accident, and he far is more vulnerable due to having Aspergers Syndrome then he will be at risk by being placed into a regular gaol facility. If there had been intent to kill the judgement would have been different. It was his girlfriend he accidentally killed in the car accident. Where's the compassion?

Compassion - whats that?!? String the bastard up, right rehctub?

There is no compassion in the world anymore, or at least not from this forum anyway. Sad really.

welcome to a world of moral relativism guys. You could not expect anything else but inconsistency. If you can get away with killing a baby in the mother's womb why should you be able to cross dress and murder. Little difference really.

I'm afraid our friend rechtub has a fairly black and white view of the world.

In this particular case, I believe the judge made the only decision he could have in conceding there was no suitable alternative. This young person, because of his effeminate appearance, would have been an instant target. Compounding this is his Aspergers, which would have led to him being mercilessly manipulated and bullied. It would have been a total disaster to incarcerate him in such a setting - not only for him, but also for the staff in the corrective institution who would have had their hands full protecting him.
If the sentence is to fit the crime, then to have placed this young man is such a setting would have been to penalise him way beyond what was initially intended.