Gay Men Cop Jail Term for Sex Acts
Fiji
Times, April 6, 2005
A TOURIST and a local delivery boy
were each sentenced to two years jail yesterday after they pleaded guilty to
one count of unnatural offence and one count of indecent practice between two
males.
Thomas Maxwell McCoskar 55, a former lecturer of
Victoria, Australia, and Dhirendra Nadan, 23, of Tavarau in Ba, appeared
before Magistrate Syed Muhktar Shah.
They were charged with having sex and taking nude
pictures in an apartment in Nadi between March 24 and April 3.
Nandan and McCoskar pleaded for leniency.
They said there was nothing wrong with what they did
because they both enjoyed it.
Nandan threatened to commit suicide if he was convicted
and sent to prison for the crime.
But Mr Shah told him that he should have thought of the
“shamefulness of the crime” before agreeing to accompany McCoskar.
McCoskar, in mitigation, said he had just retired as a university lecturer
last year and planned to make the trip to Fiji this year to “have some
fun”.
Mr Shah then described the crimes as “something so
disgusting that it would make any decent person vomit”.
He said Fiji’s courts did not take such acts lightly
and that McCoskar’s actions boardered on paedophilia.
“If you wanted to have fun, you should have stayed in
Australia instead of trying to come to Fiji and exploit our young boys,”
said Mr Shah.
“With you being a former lecturer, you should have
known that such indecent acts are illegal.”
He then sentenced the two to 12 months jail on each
count, to be served consecutively.
Mr Shah said he hoped that during their time in prison,
they would be able to learn that such acts were very bad for any society.
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