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AIBU?

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See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

To think the Ched Evans verdict shows why mob justice is wrong

864 replies

JonathanDunn · 14/10/2016 17:10

Hundreds of thousands of people were willing Condemn a innocent man. He was practically forced out of football. This is why we can't play jury from our sofas.

OP posts:
BeyondPolkadots · 15/10/2016 14:10

I guess that depends if the dependant anonymity was permenant or lasted until guilty verdict.
Without names being published, I would not have found out my family member had been tried. He didn't tell anyone. Luckily someone saw the story in the daily mail and showed me. Hmm

MostlyHet · 15/10/2016 14:12

Coming from someone who claimed (on the thread about the Oxford schoolgirl kidnapped and raped on her way to school) that in her area, 50% of rape accusations were false, I find it difficult to take anything you say on the issue of rape seriously, a7mints. However, in answer to your question, I think we can distinguish all too clearly. Most of us find that happy, consensual sex does not commence with a complete stranger letting himself into a hotel room in the dark with a key obtained by deception and having sex with a very drunk woman who'd gone to the room with an entirely different man. That is why we are struggling to understand how the jury thought that it was reasonable of Evans to believe sex was consensual - because it's as far fetched as, I dunno, the old "I tripped and fell, penis first, into her vagina" excuse... oh no, let me think - a jury believed that one too. And the "this complete stranger I talked to briefly in a bar earlier in the evening liked rough sex down an alley so much that this explains why 'consensual sex' left her with injuries so bad she needed hospital treatment" - a jury believed that one too. I personally think the criminal justice system is massively stacked against women. (And for the record, the Home Office's analysis of their own stats puts the false accusation rate in rape cases at 3%. And in this case, just to repeat for the thousandth bloody time the woman did not make any accusation, the police brought the case based on the defendant's own testimony)

PinkyOfPie · 15/10/2016 14:23

Coming from someone who claimed (on the thread about the Oxford schoolgirl kidnapped and raped on her way to school) that in her area, 50% of rape accusations were false, I find it difficult to take anything you say on the issue of rape seriously, a7mints

Was this a serious claim?!

Well considering around 35 women a year are convicted of making false rape claims can I assume a7 that they all come from your area and the female population is 70?

a7mints · 15/10/2016 15:18

No.I claimed that 50% of rape stories reprted in the press of a stranger attaching a victim in this area turned out to be fabricated.

PortiaCastis · 15/10/2016 15:21

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-37666228

a7mints · 15/10/2016 15:26

MostlyHet I don't know whether you have been on mumsnet long, but we don't trawl through posters posting history to bring up totally unrelated comments on another thread.
I don't see what my post about legal process has to do with rapes reported in my local press?
If you have an issue with a post then you counter it with argumants not out of context misquotes from an unrelated thread.

merrymouse · 15/10/2016 15:43

Oh the irony.

MNHQ
YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet · 15/10/2016 15:56

Hi folks
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CanadianJohn · 15/10/2016 16:28

There's nothing wrong with mob justice, as Monty Python has demonstrated:

Darmody · 15/10/2016 16:44

If nothing else, hopefully Ched Evans' case has finally put to rest this stupid idea that "footballers should be/must be role models."

ZuleikaDobson · 15/10/2016 16:49

The trouble is that footballers tend to be role models, whether we like it or not. If Evans gets back into top flight football, thousands of impressionable children will be getting the message that you can behave like an utterly despicable shit towards women and get away with it.

Darmody · 15/10/2016 16:52

He was went to jail, though. He didn't get away with it.

Marbleheadjohnson · 15/10/2016 17:03

Not that it really has much bearing on the general principle...but he's unlikely to get (back) into top flight football. He's pretty old by footballing standards, he's injured right now and not getting any younger, and he's not been getting experience of top flight football in his peak years. Plus a fair chunk of employers might be reluctant to touch him with a barge pole. So I don't think there's much chance of him playing for Chelsea/Wales.

His brother who merrily watched and filmed the incident with a friend and joked about it being "some fat bird" has managed to find employment as a school teacher, though. Hopefully he was telling the truth when he says he has grown up.

KarlosKKrinkelbeim · 15/10/2016 17:32

A school teacher?? No. that should be stopped. Can a complaint not be made to their professional body or regulator?

CockacidalManiac · 15/10/2016 17:40

He became a teacher after the event. I don't think there's much anyone can do about that.

Boundaries · 15/10/2016 17:40

That behaviour would go seriously against the teacher standards. I'm surprised he hasn't been de registered.

GetAHaircutCarl · 15/10/2016 17:40

Yep. A teacher. Who secretly filmed a very drunk teenager having sex ( whatever you think of the consent issue).

WTAF?

Boundaries · 15/10/2016 17:41

X post cock.

KarlosKKrinkelbeim · 15/10/2016 17:47

If behaviour is sufficiently serious it doesn't matter that it took place before he entered the profession! Can a member of the public make a complaint, does anyone know?

Marbleheadjohnson · 15/10/2016 17:47

He was 18/19 himself at the time. He's since been to university, got a maths degree and a job as a teacher.

Filming someone having sex without them knowing is a crime. I'd imagine there would be safeguarding issues if a practising teacher were prosecuted and punished for it. Like I said, I hope he has grown up.

Marbleheadjohnson · 15/10/2016 17:50

I don't know the law, Karlos, but if a child of mine were being taught by someone like that I'd be mighty concerned, no matter how long ago it was.

Not just the filming, but the total lack of awareness of what is right even now. "It was totally dark, but I can definitely say she was consenting". How?

user1476479645 · 15/10/2016 17:52

actually ChazsBrilliantAttitude he has been an 'innocent man' since his conviction was quashed several weeks ago, you remain innocent until proven guilty in UK law so it wasn't just until Friday.

PinkyOfPie · 15/10/2016 18:05

a7 is be really interested to see that if you could link to it?

merrymouse · 15/10/2016 18:21

"some fat bird"

It's just horrible isn't it. Leaving the rape conviction aside, it's so difficult to understand what CE thought he was doing.

Going back to the OP, the only thing the 'mob' did was express disgust at his actions (and that still applies) and that an, at the time, convicted racist should enjoy the great privilege of being a professional football player.

Over the past fortnight we have been told that an awful lot of thuggish, low life behaviour (UKIP, Trump) is normal for men - boys will be boys. It isn't good enough.

KarlosKKrinkelbeim · 15/10/2016 18:42

I find it beyond horrifying that such a person is allowed to reach. Good god alive. If I were a parent if one of his pupils I'd be asking some pretty tough questions of the headteacher at the very least.