Director of public prosecutions says mens sexual history should be allowed as evidence in court

29 replies

QuentinSummers · 11/08/2017 11:49

If they have a history of coercive or abusive behaviour or if they were doing things around the time of the rape that was cause for concern.
Alison Saunders says she wants to enable juries to assess the whole picture.

I think this is a great move. Well done Alison Saunders

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/08/rape-juries-hear-mens-sexual-history-increase-chance-conviction/

OP posts:

HerOtherHalf · 11/08/2017 12:05

It's an interesting point for debate. If I understand it correctly, the current principle is that cases should be tried on the evidence and not on the character of the accused. Isn't that why previous convictions are not referenced until at least a verdict has been reached?
However, if someone has a history of violence, abusive behaviour, sexual assault etc how can that not be relevant? The fact is jurors will make judgements based on their perception of the accused character "he seems such a nice man...." etc so their are judging character already, why not do so with hard facts?

MephistophelesApprentice · 11/08/2017 12:04

Good idea.

Thenorthbloodywellremembers · 11/08/2017 11:59

This is a very positive and interesting development. I hadn't heard much about Alison Saunders (through my own fault I'm sure) but she seems to be doing great work.

AssignedMentalAtBirth · 11/08/2017 11:56

About time too

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