Judges halve a paedophile's sentence because his victim ‘acts gay’ and had been abused before.

Attention judges: Being gay is not a reason to be raped.

Warning: This post deals with child sexual abuse and may be triggering for some readers.

Two judges have almost halved the jail term of a paedophile soccer coach because his six-year-old victim ‘seemed gay’ and had already been abused at the hands of his father.

Argentian Justices Horacio Piombo and Benjamín Sal Llargués have come under fire for reducing the man’s sentence from six years to 38 months.

“It cannot be considered abuse when a boy is used to being abused in his home and is accustomed to sexual behaviour and has a homosexual orientation,” the ruling said, according to The Telegraph.

Their ruling – which found the rapist shouldn’t be held entirely responsible because the boy was already used to abuse and showed “homosexual tendencies” – was sealed when it was handed down last year.

It became public recently, causing widespread outrage, when prosecutors at Buenos Aires’ Supreme Court decided to appeal the decision.

The judges apparently have a track record of inappropriately reducing sentences in a number of other cases.

In 2011, they reduced the sentence of a pastor who abused two teenage girls from 18 years to a little over nine years because his victims were poor and therefore likely had “sexual experience”.

The decision was later rejected by a higher court.

Want to know more? Check out this news video (post continues after video):

Appeals to dismiss the judges are being made to the Argentinian government, The Daily Beast reports.

“We need to make sure the judges don’t say to the world that being gay is a reason to be raped,” says local gay rights campaigner Pablo Fracchia.

“What they’re saying is, ‘Hello rapist, if you want to rape someone, rape someone who’s been raped before,’” he says.

Let’s hope the Supreme Court corrects this horrendous and offensive ruling.

For more judicial action, check out these articles:

The judge said this was the saddest story he had ever come across.

Judge delivers stark warning to couples without formal parenting agreements.

Judge orders life support removed from pregnant woman.

Judge: “Rape conviction statistics will not improve until women stop getting so drunk.”

Do you think this ruling is disgraceful?