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 poster hasnt implied that anywhere

What they have said, and misunderstood, is that boys will think twice about having sex if there is going to be action taken, consent or not. It assumes that their girlfriend does not also want to have sex, might be older or younger and would be prosecuted as well. It assumes that all underage sexual encounters are wanted by the boy but not wanted by the girl.

And in the specific case we are talking about, would mean the girl would be prosecuted as well. particularly in the light of the youngest boy being 12 AND deemed as unfit to make decisions for himself due to his vulnerability.

In 2024 after years of back and forth with the police and the CPS I finally faced my rapist in a court room.
The evidence.. photos taken at a hospital of bruises… shaped like fingerprints around my neck, a footprint imprinted on my back, restraint marks all over my body.
Torn and bruised genitalia.
Chunks of hair ripped from my head.
Pretty black and white you might think.
His defence.. I was hysterical over a lads holiday he had planned and he had to restrain me to calm me down.
I then begged for rough sex just to get back at him with my story of rape.
I was asked to read out to the bored looking jury what I’d been wearing that night.. I was asked by his female defence.. Can you not see how your outfit was confusing for men?
My arguing back up on that stand went against me (not victim like enough)
He was found not guilty, happens all the time, if your even lucky enough to make it to a court room.

Jesus wept, this is absolutely horrific and I am so, so sorry for everything you have been through. There are no words.

Yeah, I was obviously expecting him to lie I was just wasn’t expecting such toxic bullshit from everybody else in the room.
I did get a little justice afterwards.. His wife left him, his kids don’t want to know him and he lost his DBS job. I also got a large compensation payout.. I would have preferred a guilty plea obviously but it is what it is.

This is horrendous, I’m so sorry. There’s something very very wrong with how rape is prosecuted. The harm done to women doesn’t appear to be considered a factor. “Consent” is used as a tool to excuse men and boys from their actions.

Absolutely this. What an utterly fucking ridiculous thing to say in this context

Christ. If I was in court and heard this I’d probably be done for contempt. What an utterly, utterly vile man. She was a fucking CHILD.

HRTFT because I can’t, it’s too distressing. But there was a programme on last week about jury trials and they had a jury captain on being interviewed who’d been in a rape trial with an old man as the accused and they decided he was guilty but that the effects of finding him guilty would have “too severe an impact on his life”, so the jury agreed to find him not guilty.

i wonder if something similar happened here? Woman less important than the male involved. Rape isn’t that bad, and all that. Bastards.

I know! Some of the things Gilmour & Rachel Shenton said are unbelievable...but I fear probably common tactics...

Like pps, I was shocked Shenton, a woman, was making such rape myth-filled arguments. (Shocked re Gilmour too, but slightly less so). I was reading about the infamous 2018 Belfast rugby players rape trial, and it was a woman who made the terrible comment about what the victim was wearing : ' Suggesting the complainant – 17-year-old woman – was “open to meeting someone”, Elizabeth O’Connell said: “You have to look at the way she was dressed. She was wearing a thong with a lace front.”'

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/nov/15/thong-protest-in-belfast-raises-concerns-over-trials

Surely it's possible to defend without using rape myths? Ethically? Personally if I had to defend these boys I might lean on the angle that they had had no sex ed, exposure to porn & they may have genuinely thought they had consent when they didn't. That's still a morally dubious argument but it's better than using these rape myths to argue that the girl was 100% consenting.

The report says she was 13 at the time.

So she froze. I thought in 2026 there was better understanding of rape but we've clearly gone backwards.
A child gang-raped and no consequences.

I saw a reel on fb today in which a woman was saying that in every other case of violent attack - muggings, robberies etc people are advised to comply ' to give over their belongings, hand over the money etc because compliance is the best way of ensuring it doesn't get any worse.

She asked, why then, do we treat the same 'complaince' in cases of sexual assault as suspicious?

That's such a good point. It's widely accepted that it's dangerous to fight back during a violent crime but then women and children must either risk their lives or forfeit any hope of justice?
Plus for many it's not even voluntary. Ive seen several cases now where women have been sexually assaulted on planes and people questioned why they didn't call out.

It's without a doubt a massive blind spot with regards to sexual offences.

While theoretically the same logic applies to muggins essentially with regards to consent, in that in theory academically speaking if a mugger could convince a jury that the victim consented to their money being taken then that would amount to a defence.

But the reality is all jurors will say "obviously they wouldn't just willingly give all their money to a stranger because they asked nicely at 4 am" , yet for sexual assaults and rapes (even discounting so called borderline hazy both hammered cases) you will find people who will think "maybe the 13 year old virgin really did want to have her first time be a gang bang beside a tram station. Not definitely, but I can't be sure to the point of ruining some young boys lives."

It's baffling

Wow. So if you don't struggle then you aren't raped - or you don't say no. Do you know the percentage of rapes that get reported to police that end up in a conviction?

When I was raped I struggled. It made no difference.

No wonder women don't report if that's what they are up against. You only need to struggle and say no and it's all peachy. If you don't then you weren't raped - even if there's footage!

Nail on head

I feel empathy for the childhood loss and whatever background they had that lead to the incident that happened. At the end of the day they are all children and having empathy does not mean I condone what they did these children are tomorrow’s future men/women/leaders/mechanics /politicians.

I have a 13 year old son that I still know where he is and even when he’s at his friend’s house and they decide to go to the shops I can find him in 10 mins. He currently has a “brick” phone which is uncool, but it is either that or no phones. He does a lot of sports so the little free times are usually spent playing FIFA.

There will come a time when I will not be able to know where he is or what he is up to, with that in mind we have chats about right or wrong, peer pressure and trying to look cool amongst friends.

We have started talking about age of criminal responsibility, just casual chats and especially after watching Adolescence. I hope that as a family, we can navigate these formative years together and raise responsible adults. Maybe I live in a bubble 🤷‍♀️

We need more mums like you. These boys obviously don’t have parents who discussed age of criminal responsibility, the intricacies of consent, laws regarding indecent child images, etc. More parents need to do actual parenting—I too have had these discussions with my teens.

If everyone parented like this ( imagine pretty much everyone bothering to comment on this thread does) the world would be a very different place for girls.