Sex between adult males and 14 year old girls apparently defended by Mormon Church in Australian court case

In what could be regarded as an astonishing faux pas, a Barrister defending the Mormon Church in a court case in the NSW Supreme Court brought by a woman who alleges that her step father who was a Mormon sexually abused her.

The Barrister, Philip Taylor, SC, is quoted in press reports as cross-examining the woman -who is now 36- on the claim by her father that, as a 14-year-old child, she had consented to sex with him.

This was a strange point to cross-examine her on, as Taylor would have been expected to know that under the laws of NSW, a child of 14 would not have been able to give consent to sexual intercourse with any adult, not just her own stepfather.

The woman is asking the court to increase the time she is legally allowed to enter a claim as she points out that the Mormon Church deliberately withheld information about her sexual abuse -which it excommunicated her stepfather for- from the authorises including the police.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/5151765/woman-accuses-mormons-sex-abuse/

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24665248-26103,00.html