To wonder why so many famous people are publicly supporting...

[ThanksHunkyJesus]

Oritse of JLS fame who has been charged with the rape of a 20 year old fan, along with a friend of his who is accused of assaulting the same woman. Those who have publicly lent their support and well wishes to oritse include aston merrygold (also of jls), Alexandra Burke, Rochelle humes and olly murs amongst plenty of others. Falling over themselves to declare what a lovely guy oritse is.

Am I going mad or did #me too never happen? Why publicly throw your support behind someone who is accused of rape in the current climate? I wouldn't want to speculate whether he's guilty or not - but no consideration at all for the young woman did shock me.

I understand why as a friend you would stand up for him but I'm in the 'lovely men rape' boat. That means rapists are also friends with nice people.

They shouldn't name him

End of!!

Friends tend to support their friends against strangers.
I'm not going to make any comment on this specific case or the people involved as I have no idea who JLS is. But, generally, predatory men are quite good at convincing people they don't intend to shove their dicks in that they are actually nice and normal and not-rapists. Including women. Rapists quite often cultivate a few women friends - women who have a lot of status and social power - for precisely this sort of thing - here's this lovely, trustworthy, important woman saying 'I don't believe Mr Creepyfuck is a rapist, he's always been lovely to me.'
It's the nobodies that predators tend to abuse. The fans, the plain women, the poor women, the hopelessly ambition (who perhaps won't report it as rape anyway).

Aston
“These 3 guys... The nicest, most humble, caring, selfless, hardworking (I could go on..) people I’m lucky enough to call family! No matter what, we are brothers, like it or not! And we stand in each other corner.”

Rochelle (who is married to another former JLS member, Marvin Humes) "Always,"
Alexandra Burke "Amen."

I can only assume they are saying that - no matter what, they have his back. Is that unreasonable? depends on how you would look at it if it was a family member of yours.
Do you disown or do you support, regardless of charge or outcome.

I can only presume that the people who are publicly supporting him not only trust him, but know more details of the circumstances/woman involved so they feel they know it didn't happen.

I didn't know about Oritse but IIRC something similar came up a few years ago and never got anywhere.

It's disgusting and I judge all of them for supporting him. Lauding those accused only serves to feed into the damage of rape culture

On and also, I believe her

I wonder how long imbeciles are going to use the Roxanne Pallett argument to somehow 'prove' a man can't have committed rape. Dickheads

I don't understand either. Even if you do believe that your friend is innocent, why would you subject yourself to such negative PR? Essentially saying to the world that Me Too isn't important to you. It's utterly baffling.

I mean, I could maybe understand it at the accusation stage, maybe. But he's been charged ffs.

WhatIsThisTomfoolery, it's just not a sustainable argument to suggest that the fact that he has been charged means it must have happened. You can't seriously suggest that everyone who has been charged with an offence must be guilty purely by virtue of being charged.

Anouk I don’t agree re trials. They are there to prove innocence or guilt based on charges, often several

No they're not. A trial never determines innocence. Not guilty does not mean "we believe the defendant is innocent". It means they can't find them guilty beyond reasonable doubt

No idea as to what Olly/Oti have said or done but Aston and Rochelle see him as family and so it's not that different to mums on here supporting their sons/brothers/fathers/husbands. Not something I would ever do on social media though.
Similar to Alison Brie supporting her BIL when he was accused of harrassment.

But it is going to court next month, after 18/19 months investigation, so any comment - including mine - is inappropriate in the circumstances.
OP go 9-9!

I don't understand either. Even if you do believe that your friend is innocent, why would you subject yourself to such negative PR? Essentially saying to the world that Me Too isn't important to you. It's utterly baffling.

Maybe because they put their friendship and trust in their friend above their career which is actually really nice. They obviously believe him so think this woman is lying. I'm not saying he did or didn't do it, I obviously have no idea.

Not many men admit to rape do they, so they are walking a thin line supporting him.
There's a thread going on at the moment asking if people who don't believe those accused of rape should be named until they're guilty understand what they're talking about. I think this thread proves that OP's point! So much misunderstanding about the law. Pleased to see @JaniceBattersby who always provides good insights on these kinds of threads

That's why I asked about management up thread.
Maybe they were told to publicly support him?

It is actually quite nice Perfectly. I bet it's caused all sorts of havoc for their manangement today though.

gunpowder
On and also, I believe her

What has she said?

@WhatIsThisTomfoolery well she has stuck it out through almost 2 years of investigations, waiting, interviews and no doubt scrutiny, and the fact that he's charged say a lot -the CPS only charge those cases they believe have a decent chance of ending in a conviction - so whilst I haven't personally spoken to her, I believe her. Why wouldn't I?

GunpowderGelatine

They obviously don't see it like that. They will have heard his side and believe him. I just mean that caring more about their friend than their public image is the right thing to do.

If he's done it he deserves to go to prison. If he hasn't, then the woman should be punished. That goes without saying.

"Do you want to come back to my room" usually means sex, not for coffee and Brexit discussions

Yes it does but it does not mean that you can't change your mind about sex once you are there. It is utterly ridiculous to think that just because sex might have been what was anticipated that either party doesn't have the right to decide no.

Rapists quite often cultivate a few women friends - women who have a lot of status and social power - for precisely this sort of thing - here's this lovely, trustworthy, important woman saying 'I don't believe Mr Creepyfuck is a rapist, he's always been lovely to me.'
It's the nobodies that predators tend to abuse. The fans, the plain women, the poor women, the hopelessly ambition (who perhaps won't report it as rape anyway

This is so true.
I have lost count of the amount of male people I know who have made approaches to me at various times requesting support with a abuse or sexual offence related accusation against them.
They always appear to be stunned when I point blank refuse.

I refuse because
A. I work with victims of abuse that is my preference
B. How the fuck am I meant to know what they are like when I’m not around
C. I’m not on a mission to commit professional suicide

If he's done it he deserves to go to prison. If he hasn't, then the woman should be punished. That goes without saying

Do you mean if he's found not guilty she should be punished?

I wonder why it's only ever rape that people jump to "innocent until proven guilty" or "he's probably falsely accused". Why never when you hear someone accused of burglary or setting a dog on fire. I wonder why that could be 🧐