Revelations that a judge released nine people who had been found guilty of raping a 10-year-old girl because she "probably agreed to have sex" have sparked a massive round of soul-searching within Australia about the problem of abuse within Aboriginal communities.

Amid public outcry, the Government of Queensland announced a review of all sexual assault cases in Aboriginal communities on Cape York, the remote region where the assault occurred, and white residents joined Aboriginals in demanding the sentence be overturned.

Kevin Rudd, the new Prime Minister, also made one of his first interventions since becoming leader when he said he was "horrified" by the result of the trial.

The issue emerged into the spotlight this morning when Australian media reported that Sarah Bradley, a district court judge, had placed six of the offenders, who were juveniles at the time of the rape, on 12-month probation and recorded no convictions against them.

She also suspended six-month prison sentences for the three other offenders, aged 17, 18 and 26.

Ms Bradley told the offenders in her sentencing remarks that it was illegal to have sex with anyone younger than 16, but that the victim in this case "was not forced and she probably agreed to have sex with all of you," The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

As well as causing outrage, the judgment led to renewed questions about the problem of sexual abuse within Australia's Aboriginal communities less than six months after a Government report found there was serious child sex abuse in societies in the Outback Northern Territory.

Speaking just days after arriving in office, Mr Rudd said: “I’m disgusted and appalled by the reports that I’ve seen ... on this case.

"I am horrified by cases like this, involving sexual violence against women and children. My attitude is one of zero tolerance.”

Among measures after the report six months ago, the government of John Howard, the former Prime Minister, moved to seize powers from the territorial government and impose restrictions on alcohol sales and distribution of pornography.

However, while the report’s authors said the problem of child sex abuse was also probably rife in remote Aboriginal communities in other areas, its plan only applied to the Northern Territory, where the federal government has constitutional powers it does not have over the country's other states.

Boni Robertson, a Queensland Aboriginal activist, said there was no excuse for the rape, or the leniency of the sentences, and that culturally Aboriginals should not tolerate sexual abuse within communities.

“There is nothing culturally, there is nothing morally, there is nothing socially and there is definitely nothing legally that would ever allow this sort of decision to be made,” she said.

Anna Bligh, Premier of Queensland, said she had ordered an immediate review of all sentences in the past two years for sexual assault on the Cape York Peninsula to ensure there was not a trend of leniency.

“The nature of the sentences in this case are so far from community expectations I have to say I am alarmed, and I am not prepared to just write this off as an unusual one-off case,” she said.

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