A rapist's "apology"

Glad you agree Immaculada, I wasn't entirely sure whether I was making a bit of a conspiracy theory about it. It's worth listening to the Women's Hour piece (although it makes horribly depressing listening)

Yes I did alice. I nearly wrote on this thread earlier that I worry that once our universities are charging full fees the hushing up is more likely to happen here because they are not going to want the bad publicity which I think is at the root of the issue in the US. Obviously that's underpinned by a horrific acceptance that rape is pretty much a part of life when you put young men and young women together in close proximity.

Did anyone hear Woman's Hour about sexist hate speech on US uni (eg Yale)campuses/fraternity houses and lack of effective action? Hideously similar denial of responsibility etc.

Yes it was. This was 20 years ago and I started a new degree at what was then a polytechnic, in the hope that it would be slightly more enlightened (and it was)

I realise that you might not be able to say, obviously.

Christine, that's really shocking.

I'm guessing it was one of the 'older' universities?

Surprised if she doesn't sue the University.

I thought the man got in touch because he was carrying out one of those AA programmes where one of the steps is to make amends for past wrongs. Or, at least, that was his cover ....

The dean's reaction reminds me of when I was in my first year at university and we had gendered halls of residence. They held a 'slave auction' of members of the student council and an all-male hall 'bought' the female members of the council. They made the women serve them dinner and assaulted and abused them verbally throughout. When there was a meeting to discuss what happened, one of the women who spoke out most vehemently was assaulted by one of the key perpetrators - he knocked her to the ground and tore at her tights. No prosecutions were made and the entire appalling thing was hushed up by the university as juvenile horse play. The woman stood down from the student council and I left the university at the end of term and started a degree somewhere else.

It was really, really shocking to see how some men condone violence against women as acceptable. I learned a valuable lesson :(

How can you only serve 6 months of a 10 year sentence??

Doesn't read like an apology to me .

Where's the justice? He ADMITS it and still pretty much gets away with it.

OMG: poor, poor woman. Tormenting her once obviously wasn't enough

I take it this was the article in The Guardian on Saturday. It was absolutely chilling the way no one helped her when the rape occurred, how they just covered it up and made it clear she had somehow deserved it. The university dean etc should also have been prosecuted for perverting the course of justice.
And the apology didn't strike me as one. There was no real remorse in it, no acceptance of the damage he had caused.

I found the worst part was that although she was so battered, like you point out Dittany, and had blood drying between her legs and reported it to as many people as possible as soon as she could, still no-one did anything. And then of course she got the usual "are you sure this wasn't consensual?" crap. Urgh, couldn't stop thinking about this last night. Makes my blood boil.

In this country today we offer chances for victims and criminals to meet up in controlled enviroments, but not for rape or sexual assault cases. This is just awful, especially as he just got her address from the uni (another thing they cocked up on ) and was just able to get in touch. Awful, awful, awful.

X-post with sparky!

Wow - him contacting her was all about him wasn't it?

"I can scarcely begin to understand the degree to which, in your eyes, my behaviour has affected you in its wake." Implication being that in his eyes his behaviour had no effect and he certainly wasn't affected by it. There was no need to put the "in your eyes" bit in that sentence.

His subsequent correspondence was more of the same - all about him, no real interest in how it affected her.

Poor woman, and in answer to her last question - no justice wasn't served.

eh?
".......in youre eyes that my behaviour has ......"
fuck off-he is blaming the woman for hes own wrongness/abuse still
years later the prick is still thinking him right-and seeking validation for this-its not about him being sorry at all!
what-has he found god or something-or is he still getting hes kicks and wanted to drag it up again???
6 months?fuckin crimmanal-the woman has a life sentance-
thats ok though-he served him time-so thats ok!
if he was really sorry he would of gone out of hes way to find/tell about the equell bastard that dragged the woman to him-oh shut up sparky-the prick is looking after hes own skin and fellow "men"!!!
he hasnt got a concience-just look at hes words-the bastard is still angry many years later-and him still hate women or him wouldnt of done this to her-its like him still raping her!

I read it and was horrified. I would like to know how the university will be made accountable for its actions at the time.

Thats utterly terrible.
I had a friend who was sexually attacked at uni by a fellow housemate and our uni treated her brilliantly, although she decided not to press charges. What as described in the article is just horrific.