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Fri 06 Jun 2007Penalty for assault on male challenged by brotherThe High Court has reserved judgment on a challenge by a Christian Brother to the constitutionality of laws providing for maximum sentences for indecent assaults on males which are five times higher than maximum sentences for similar offences against females.The brother is facing trial on 31 charges of sexually abusing several boys in a residential school in the 1960s and 1970s. He has denied the claims and contends the relevant laws are a manifest discrimination on grounds of gender.