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Original poster

The age of consent to be raped....

56 replies

InmaculadaConcepcion · 14/04/2011 16:07

I was shocked by this story about two twelve year-old girls being raped by six men, as anyone would be.

Apparently, from what was said in court, one of the two girls had texted the men and set up the meeting and allegedly suggested having sex. She ended up being raped by five of them.

The age of consent in the UK is 16, so below that age a girl cannot legally give her consent to sex.

But further down in the article there was this quote:

"if the activities had taken place just four weeks later than they had, when the main girl would have turned 13, none of the defendants would have faced any criminal charges because of the defence provided by her actions."

In other words (it seemed to me) although at age 13 a girl is judged legally unable to give consent to sexual intercourse, it seems she can consent to being statutorily raped. Hmm

Have I got this thoroughly mixed up?

OP posts:
AMumInScotland · 14/04/2011 16:24

The thing is, the girls did give consent, or what would have been accepted in law as consent if they had been 13. Presumably the men would still have been charged with having sex with an underage girl, but then I think they have to show that the men knew, or could have been expected to know, that she was underage, which is tricky.

The dodgy parts of the story are the words of the defence council, who could be expected to make it all "not the boys fault" as an attempt to make it seem less serious. But the paper could have pointed out that they didn't agree with the crap the defence were spouting, if they'd thought that.

seimum · 14/04/2011 16:23

I think it's that if the girl is under 13, an offence of rape is committed even if the girl agreed to sex.

If she was 13-15, then the defendants can claim that she gave consent, so it's not rape. It may be another offence, but I don't know, I'm not a lawyer.

I think it's tragic that a girl of 12 thinks that asking a group of men to meet her & have sex is a good idea.

Insomnia11 · 14/04/2011 16:21

If you have sex with a girl under the age of 16 it's statutory rape AFAIK. Whether she consented to have sex or not is neither here nor there. Kids can't actually give valid consent.

sethstarkaddersmackerel · 14/04/2011 16:17

I don't understand that either. Note it was the defence lawyers that said it though, and they would have a motive for talking this kind of bollocks.

this is a nauseating article, it is all about the poor upstanding men whose lives were ruined by these awful lying girls. Eg 'They highlighted the lies of the young girl who took part in most of the sexual activity and said that if it had not been for their clients' honesty and full descriptions of events, the Crown Prosecution Service would have had no case.'

ffs! it practically reads as if it is the men that have been raped by the girls, not the other way round.

why are people so ready to accept excuses? No man is ever forced to have sex with an underage girl - 'They were said to have been shocked and disgusted to learn the true ages of the girls, with one stating: 'I've got a little sister about that age.' - well surely it's fairly obvious that if you don't know a girl and you only think she's 16 because she tells you so, not shagging her until you know her a bit better might be a better idea? Confused
it is this idea that casual sex with 16 year olds is somehow a right that men have and it is all terribly unfortunately that sometimes exercising their right gets them into trouble....

K999 · 14/04/2011 16:13

Rape is rape if you you don't give consent, regardless of age, surely?

Goblinchild · 14/04/2011 16:12

That was a quote from the defence lawyers, trying to put the case for their rapist clients. They'd still have had to use it in court and get it past the judge and jury.
A good prosecutor should have been able to attack it and get it dismissed.