By Adam Carey/ The Age
A Liberal candidate has resigned after criticising a woman who said her husband had raped her, saying the husband was the “real victim”.
A spokesman for the Victorian Division of the Liberal Party said Scullin candidate Gurpal Singh was asked to step down after a series of offensive Facebook posts were made public.
“Based on new information that has come to light, Mr Gurpal Singh has been asked to resign as the candidate for Scullin. Mr Singh sincerely apologises for his previous comments and has tendered his resignation,” the spokesman said.
Mr Singh is the seventh Victorian Liberal candidate to be disendorsed by the party this federal election.
Mr Singh had previously linked same-sex marriage with paedophilia.
On Thursday, SBS reported Mr Singh, Liberal candidate for the safe Labor seat in Melbourne’s north, took to social media in May last year to condemn the woman for going public with her story of rape.
“I totally disagree with the allegation of rape,” he posted.
“No sympathy. Such element brings bad name to whole community,” he wrote.
“She skimmed her lover, husband and father of her two children for all these years. And now she alleges rape. Was she kept locked all these years?”
The Age revealed last month that Mr Singh also likened same-sex marriage with paedophilia, in a radio interview in late 2017.
Here we are doing something that is against nature … ,” he told SBS Radio in October 2017.
“How do you perceive that situation and what is the overall impact? I think there is also an issue of paedophilia.”
