In Queensland, a sex offender receives a free “cultural differences” pass following his Surfers Paradise groping frenzy.

The ABC reports:

A teenager who groped eight women as they swam at one of Queensland's busiest beaches has been placed on two years' probation by a Gold Coast judge. The Afghan-born 17-year-old, who cannot be identified because he committed the offences as a juvenile, spent two hours grabbing women, aged between 15 and 24 years, as he swam between the flags at Surfers Paradise Beach on January 16 last year.

As you’ll soon discover, there is another element to this one-man Cologne swarm’s age:

The offending stopped when three of the victims approached the lifeguard on duty and he then notified police. The teenager was initially charged as an adult because he had no birth records from Afghanistan.

So he’s one of those ageless types who somehow arrived here without any documentation.

He was sentenced today as a juvenile in the District Court at Southport after pleading guilty to nine charges of sexual assault and three charges of common assault. Two of the victims, who were aged 15 years at the time of the offending, were present in court. Judge David Kent heard the Victoria-based defendant grabbed his victims on their bottoms, breasts and, in three cases, their vaginas. Crown prosecutor Nick McGhee said the defendant was seen swimming up to his victims "in quite a predatory manner". When questioned by the lifeguard on duty, the defendant allegedly said: "If I just say sorry, can we forget all about it?"

Islam is the most feminist religion. Of course it is.

During sentencing, Judge Kent accepted the teenager grew up in difficult circumstances in Afghanistan and his father died in 2011. He went on to say his behaviour, while holidaying on the Gold Coast with his family, was unacceptable … The judge placed the Victorian teenager on two years' probation and no conviction was recorded.

That ABC report omits the judge’s worst line:

The judge accepted that seeing girls in bikinis is different to the environment in which he grew up.

And that, my friends, is how you beat multiple sex charges in Australia in 2017.

(Via Jill.)

UPDATE. According to an earlier ABC report, the offender was an 18-year-old Pakistani:

Contrast these two reports. Seems this sex offender 'forgot' his age and country of birth. Via Tim Blair https://t.co/f6Su3j9TRT … pic.twitter.com/mh81ez47lp — MonsterDome (@Monster_Dome) April 27, 2017

Also, he was originally charged with two counts of attempted rape.