Jackie Pascoe Jamilmira, a 50 year-old Australian Aboriginal man, was sentenced last week to a jail term of 24 hours for having unlawful intercourse with a minor – his promised wife. Pascoe was originally sentenced to 13 months by magistrate Vince Luppino, who wished to use the judgment as a deterrent to underage marriages. On appeal, North Australia Aboriginal legal aid lawyer Gerard Bryant argued that the marriage was “morally correct under Aboriginal law.” Pascoe had been paying the girl’s family with gifts such as food, spears and money since the girl’s birth in 1986. Pascoe’s lawyer said that in Aboriginal society age is not relevant in a family’s decision send a girl to her husband. Justice Gallop decided the marriage was lawful and appropriate in Aboriginal society and reduced the sentence to the minimum 24 hours period allowed by the Northern Territory Mandatory Sentence Law for sexual assault.
