A Sydney judge's comments about the taboo falling away from incest have outraged child protection advocates.

District Court Judge Garry Neilson reportedly said the community may no longer see sexual contact between siblings and between adults and children as "unnatural" or "taboo", just as homosexuality is now widely accepted.

"A jury might find nothing untoward in the advance of a brother towards his sister once she had sexually matured, had sexual relationships with other men and was now available, not having [a] sexual partner" he is reported as saying by Fairfax media.

He said the only reason that incest was still a crime was because of the high risk of genetic abnormalities in children born from consanguineous relationships.

"But even that falls away to an extent (because) there is such ease of contraception and readily access to abortion," he added.

Dr Cathy Kezelman, president of adults surviving child abuse, said his comments were archaic and "beyond belief".

She said in the case of incest when family boundaries are crossed, there is profound damage to children.

"It's finally been spoken about. But attitudes do need to shift. There are still a lot of myths, still a lot of entrenched, very damaging beliefs and that's why we need to speak out about it, attack those myths and educate people, so we're not hearing these outrageous statements," she said.

Dr Kezelman says the Attorney-General needs to look into the matter.

"We need to look at the calibre and the awareness of judges on our benches," she told Fairfax Radio Network on Thursday.

Judge Neilson made the comments this week in the case of a 58-year-old man who is charged with repeatedly raping his younger sister in the family's western Sydney home in 1981.

Braveheart's Hetty Johnston has called for Judge Neilson to step down from the bench for his "ludicrous and obscene remarks"


http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2014/07/10/09/12/sydney-judge-slammed-for-in...