[Alberta_Beef]

People have to know all the facts before placing a harsh judgement. You have to consider certain factors before automatically deciding someone is the scum of the earth. I for one would want to know certain things before passing a sentence as a judge.

I think one question that should be asked is how old does the girl look?

Now I am not saying the guy should be absolved of responsibility over this but sometimes it is true that you have absolutely no clue how old a person is. I have a cousin with a 14 year old daughter who looks at least 20 and has older guys hitting on her all the time and it scares the hell out of me because if she isn't forthright about her age none of these guys would have a clue. So you can't just hear 15 year old and assume she looks (and acts like she is 15).

A second question that needs to be asked is did she say she was older than 15?

I think this is important, especially with the 1st question I have. If she looks 20, acts 20 and says she is 20 then suddenly that grey area is much much larger because now in the guys mind the dilemma is now moral and not legal.

A third question to be asked is did he reveal he was a police officer?

If she had no idea he was a cop then he never abused his authority, because you can only abuse power if the other person knows you have it.

A fourth question is does the 39 year old look 39?

If he is one of those lucky #######s that looks like he is 10 year younger, then the girl might be less inclined to share her real age with him.

Now I am not for a second suggesting the girl is at fault here, but I think without all the facts it is impossible to pass judgement and chastise the decisions made by the judge and even he cop.