The three boys accused of taking it in turns to rape a girl have been found not guilty

[Lougle]

The three boys accused of taking it in turns to rape a girl have been found not guilty on all counts despite some of the incident being filmed. How could that be? That poor girl. I believe in justice, I wasn't in court. I just can't understand it though.

The passers by must also have thought it was consensual too thought.
They called her a slut. I'd like to think they'd have intervened if they thought she was being forced.

I think this lets them off the hook.

I think they knew it was wrong but they’re being told by everything they read online that they should take who / what they want.

I renember vividly watching the prettiest girl in our class sitting there in year 10 letting two boys feel her up under her shirt and bra whilst the rest of the class waited for the teacher.

The look on the girl’s face was so resigned, like this was her lot in life.

This was decades ago and nothing has changed.

Its well known that passers by dont intervene in things

Who were these passers by though? I would wager they werent sensible sounding adults by the sound of what they said. Im wondering if they were older teen boys? Is it mentioned anywhere who they were?

They couldn’t see her face, how would they know it was consensual?

It’s been shown time and time again that passers by don’t intervene. We as a society are so disconnected from each other that people just look the other way.

You see it on MN all the time, so many women say they wouldn’t intervene.

85% of 12 year olds have smartphones
40% of 13 year olds have social media profiles
27% of 12 year olds have viewed pornography
65% of 5-16 year olds have a device with internet access in their bedrooms overnight

So, the chances are that very many parents are raising boys like this, inadvertently.

Only 17% of parents remove devices overnight

I agree with you but you're agreeing with what Im saying

They dont think its wrong, because they know they're entitled to act like this. The girl is there for the taking.

They only 'know' its wrong because its ended up in court and they're being viewed as predators.

I suspect at the time it didnt enter their heads that they shouldnt be doing it.

This is horrendous and I'm really shocked by the defence arguments in 2026. How were they 'supposed to.know' she didn't consent? Maybe because she was 13, and didn't consent?

Yep this

And the kicking off when you dare suggest that this is not a good idea. I mean from the adults, rather than the kids

Talk of 'sensible use' and 'parental controls' and 'helping them learn how to use it sensibly'

Bullshit.

Its like giving a cat a mouse to play with in the hope they become friends.

I think we mostly agree but I think they knew they were doing wrong but they thought they would get away with it, such is their entitlement.

And they were right.

My only hope now is that their school friends and neighbours make the rest of their lives a living hell.

So she couldn’t run out anywhere and get help? She just stood there watching, she could have got help? Horrific that this girl went through it but it really doesn’t add up here.

So if it's very finely balanced would you rather send an innocent man to prison than have a rapist go free?

Our system is based around a principle that it is less bad for the guilty to go unpunished than for the alternative, which is to lock up innocent men.

It's a principle I firmly believe in.

I've given up reading further into these type of stories as VAWG is horrifically under punished/no accountability anyway. I really do feel completely helpless. I was raped and SA’ed throughout my childhood, this type of case is exactly why I would never even attempt to prosecute.

That’s a fucking joke they raped that poor girl and those fools let them off with it. What the fuck is wrong with an our justice system when they are letting 3 teenage rapists off scot free to go out and do it again because they will because now they think they will get away with it every time. Absolute shameful miscarriage of justice.

No way you read this and felt empathy for the boys to the same degree as the girl...

You are putting adult expectations of behaviour onto a child. Pretty reprehensible if you ask me. Why is it you hold the girls to such higher standards than the boys?

No, I obviously wouldn’t want an innocent man to go to prison. But I’m really thinking about cases like the one we’re discussing, where there is video evidence. And rape myths like the idea that if the victim isn’t screaming out the word ‘no’, that means she’s consenting. As a rape victim myself (CSA), I know that isn’t what happens and freezing is a very common response to sexual assault.

Although maybe I would be ruled out as a rape victim from serving as a juror on a rape trial?

Poor poor girl. That sounds fucking horrific!!
Little bastards, they are.
The violence in our schools and shit like this is why my dd is going to 3 martial arts classes pw. It's not fitness/discipline and structure that I'm sending her for. It's to give her the tools to be able to protect herself from this shitty new "society" we are living in, in the UK.
So sad and angry for that wee lassie

It isn't as clear cut as people have been saying. She said yes on the bus, it's been reported in several posts above.

Video of sex isn't evidence of a crime, people do it all the time these days.

I'm very sorry about your own experience of this horrendous crime.

Didn't they tell her to shut up in the clip? Maybe I'm misremembering

Absolutely horrific.
Oral rape and Anal rape at the same time, and just 13 years old? Raped by other children?
I have no words.

I 100% believe she did not consent and found guilty of rape or not, the behaviour of those boys was absolutely disgusting.

Maybe they did but you'd have have to know what she was saying to know whether that meant anything, wouldn't you? There are no reports on what that was.

What you are observing is the fact that a 13 year old didn't behave in the manner that you would expect a young woman to behave if she or an aquaintance were being forced into nonconsensual sex.

The square won't fit the circle as 13 year olds aren't emotionally mature enough to adequately risk assess and manage a sexual encounter - consensual or otherwise - and thus their behaviour may not follow logical norms.

This is why the age of consent is set above this age to a threshold where it is believed a young person would be sufficiently cognisant of both their actions in the moment and potential consequences to be able to give informed consent.

However this also applies to the boys involved with regards to their actions.

This is why these cases are so difficult when the interaction is between peers as neither party has the maturity to make decisions of this nature at these ages.

I think this is likely to be true as well. I wholeheartedly wish the evidence had been there to get guilty verdicts.

Exactly - oh, they are too immature to realise what they are doing but she is apparently mature enough at FUCKING 12 to want and consent to have sex with 3 people at once?!

What the actual fuck.