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  • no angel
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no angel

Magi Gibson

(After Judge Ian Starforth Hill described a nine year old rape victim
as “not exactly an angel herself” and gave her attacker two years’ probation)

she was nine and half her milk teeth
gone because she’d kissed the boys
behind the shed And she listened in
on big girl/bad girl jokes and laughed and
laughed until she wet her knickers though
she never understood what was so funny she
was only nine but already knew the ins and
outs of Sexual Intercourse They’d done it in
class with Miss Jones And she’d seen it
on the telly a million times though she
never looked not really just pretended while
she counted the leaves on the weeping fig
and she might well have known a con
dom if she’d met one in the street And it cannot
be denied she’d played kiss/kick/torture and
enjoyed it And snogged Jamie from the High
School for ten minutes under the chute without
taking
a
breath
with three independent witnesses so it
shouldn’t have surprised you not really when
her past was revealed in court and the Judge
with all the Wisdom of his Wig the Judge
with all the Gravity of his Gown
revealed that the victim the
nine year old victim
of the sex attack

was no angel


Magi Gibson

from Wild Women of a Certain Age (Edinburgh: Chapman Publishing, 2000)

Reproduced by permission of the author

Tags:

abuse childhood innocence judgement rape teachers
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Magi Gibsonb.1953

Magi Gibson is a poet, children's author and creative writing tutor.
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