 A Brisbane judge spared him a criminal conviction so as not to jeopardise his future career, but the would-be doctor who tried to give an 11-year-old boy a penis massage might not be so lucky a second time.
| And shouldn't be so lucky the first time. |
State Attorney General Kerry Shine is seeking a jail term for disgraced University of Queensland medical student Shakeel Mirza, who escaped with only 12 months probation over his attempt to molest the boy in February 2006.
| That's "molest," as in molesting an 11-year-old, as in grabbing his gennies. |
A criminal conviction was not formally recorded after his defence lawyers successfully argued that a black mark against his name could prevent Mirza, 27, from getting a government Blue Card - or security clearance - allowing him to treat children in hospital.
| And think of all the gennie massages the children of Brisbane would miss then. |
But at an appeal hearing in Brisbane's Supreme Court today, barrister for the Crown, Michael Copely described Mirza's punishment as "manifestly inadequate", and accused sentencing judge David Searles of "closing his eyes" to other sentencing options.
| Perhaps the judge should be required to send his children to Dr. Mirza for treatment in the future. |
He asked the court to resentence Mirza to 12 months' jail - albeit wholly suspended - and record a criminal conviction. "The offence was serious enough in itself, given the age disparity of the parties and the breach of trust," Mr Copely argued.
| He is a ped-o-phile. He gropes little children. He should be jugged and the key thrown away. Normal men seldom have any reason to grab the doinkers of children over the age of about a year, and then only if they're the children's parents, and even then only in the line of diaper duty. Back in my day, when brontosaurs ruled the world, we used to call those things "privates." |
The Pakistani-born medical student
| Of course he's a Pak. Who had any doubt? |
had been appointed as a mentor to the 11-year-old boy under the Lions Club's "Aunties and Uncles" program when he tried to force his hands down the youngster's pants at the family's Brisbane home. The court heard he had been rubbing the child's head to relax him when he offered to massage the child's penis instead because "it would feel better". The boy managed to fend off Mirza's advances.
| "Getcher hands orff me, you pervert! [KICK!]" |
It was later suggested Mirza had been inspired to touch the boy after watching the comedy film Spaceballs, which had been playing in the room at the time.
| I've seen that movie. I can't seem to recall which part makes you grab for mini-baloney. |
Today, Mirza's defence barrister Brad Farr argued that in some cases, shame was enough to deter people from reoffending, and that a jail sentence - even a wholly suspended one - was not warranted.
| In other cases, hanging's too good for them. |
He also maintained that a criminal conviction would cast a pall over his client's promising future as a doctor. The court has reserved its decision.
| Maybe he should look for a new line of work. The idea of sending my grandkids to a pediatrician noted for grabbing at their dangling participles makes me gag. |
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