No punishment for man who raped girl, 12 - BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-e ... e-39305042

Ideally, his name and picture would have been kept out of it, but that's another can of worms...

I gather it was consensual but because of her age (under 13) it becomes statutory rape. In fact, it would never had come to light save for:

With all due respect, people under the age of 13 are considered to unable be give informed consent.That's the whole point. That means even if they seem to be willing particpants, they almost certainly (in the eyes of the law) don't understand the possible consequences and risks in what they're doing, so people older than them should do the right [LIFTED] thing and protect them. not take sodding advantage.

There's no 'but it was only because she was under 13' as if it was a mitigating factor. She was under 13, so it was rape, That's the entire logic. If you're over 13, you should sodding well know this and you should sodding well not do it. You could definitely sodding well know it by the time you're 20. He may not be a convicted criminal but he's plainly a [LIFTED].

Frankly, I have no effing clue what this judge was thinking.

As the judge clearly said it was a highly unusual set of circumstances.
- Everyone who encountered the girl on the evening in question, including the police, had no concern over her age
- As soon as he was informed by the police of the girls age the offender burst into tears, that's contrition/remorse
- He pleaded guilty to the rape charge, he didn't try to defend his actions

Yes, it was statutory rape. The judge said that and the guy admitted it straight off when he found out the age of the girl.
There was no apparent intent by the guy to comit a crime however which is also an important consideration.

The guy made a horrible mistake and broke the law. There's no indication as far as we can tell from the article that there was intent on his part at any point. If, however, he's involved in a future breach of the law this incident will be flagged so he's not getting off completely free.

How far should we expect people to go to verify someone's age before they sleep with each other?

The Guardian article has more details of the judgement:
clickety
Even a spokeswoman for Rape Crisis wouldn't comment on the specific case. That tells you something about the circumstances here. They're not exactly likely to be quiet if they thought the ruling was wrong.

from what I have read it should like a good call by the judge - he is still guilty and it will be "on his file" he just wont go to prison

Ordinarily, I would completely agree. But then the issues I would raise would be:

- why was a 12-year-old girl out at night at 4am?
- where were her parents? IMO they would be equally culpable here for what happened
- why didn't the officers do anything about a minor wandering around late at night?