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.

As others have said, there is no mitigation for guilty/ not guilty decisions. Only sentencing.

im horrified by this. It makes no sense

Rochdale again

Yes its incredible isnt it

The friend and the victim not 'credible' enough to say no, or to hear no, or to give credible evidence. But the victim is credible enough as a willing sexual participant and we all believe she really did consent.

My daughter in yr 7 was accosted by 3 yr 8s outside the school gates and was pushed and pulled by them all and then dragged to the ground, now this isn't rape at all but it was an assault. I reported it to both school and the police, the school took it far more seriously, do you what the policeman said after I reported it?

"We have to find the right way to go about this if the school and the boys confirm what happened, we don't want to go over the top and criminalise these young boys."

That there tells me everything I needed to know about the bias against girls and women.

I am sick sick sick of the treatment women and girls have to put up with from males, we need a serious movement to combat this because it's getting worse.

The general position of all authorities is that children, not just male children, shouldnt be criminalised.

the freeze response needs to be taken into account by lawmakers, judges and juries.

Why would she have struggled when it obviously would have been useless and would have exposed her to a much greater risk of violence and even death?
horrible!

I am very glad the law was recently changed in Switzerland to recognise freeze / lack of consent as rape… (which is where I happen to live and practice law. The cases I’ve been involved in under the old law - where struggling was required - were harrowing for the victims.)

That poor wee girl. I hope she manages to overcome the trauma and have a happy life.

Sadly the only thing that now shocks me is that people are shocked at the outcome.

Despite a significant increase in reported rapes—68,387 recorded in the year ending December 2023—only 3.6% of these cases resulted in a charge, and 5.4% were prosecuted.

The authorities do not care about children being raped - grooming girls proved this and are having to crowd fund to get justice. That is where we are. We Crowdfund for rape justice.

No doubt men will be moving here to rape kids. We do not protect children in the U.K. And the world knows it. Verdicts like this prove it.

Politicians harp on about human rights while forgetting about children’s human rights.

The grooming cover up by police, authorities, religious leaders, family members, social workers, councillors, counsellors, nurses, doctors, MPs etc proved we are a disgrace.

I am disgusted at the verdict. But not surprised.

Please write to your MPs - strength in numbers.

There was a rape case it must have been about 20 years ago and it was a woman raped by multiple men. The sheer amount of people, women and men alike, willing to believe that every woman (but not them of course) was just a couple of vodkas away from agreeing to have sex with multiple men was, again, ridiculous. Where a woman or girl has reported a rape by multiple men or boys, it vastly, vastly more likely she has actually been raped. The 'regret' trope is just that, a trope. These boys apparently can't be held to the same moral standard as men because they're just boys, but fucking hell the standard for women and girls is always fully intact.

Shouldn't young people be taught that the threshold for consent is clear, enthusiastic consent? I really don't think it should ever be enough to say 'she looked at me like she fancied me.'

The 'why didn't she fight back" is a rape myth .
70% of victims freeze

There is absolutely no point in denying that there is a very small proportion of girls who behave this way. It doesn't help justice one teeny weeny bit.

For all the outrage on this thread none of us were in that retiring room or know why the jury could not get 10 out of the 12 of them to agree a guilty verdict.

The overwhelming likelihood is that there simply wasn't enough independent evidence to get the majority needed beyond reasonable doubt.

We are now at the point where a witness and video footage isn’t enough evidence.

Criminals are no doubt portrayed as victims. Poor little boys didn’t understand - let’s not ruin their little lives. Awful backgrounds, not clever enough, weren’t taught right from wrong - etc etc.

From the defence barrister:

"[Her friend] told them to f off," Ms Shenton told. "I asked [the alleged victim] if she told them to 'f off'. She did not. She went into the bushes. I'm not seeking to throw shade at her. She is a young girl... immature. Why didn't she shout? Why didn't she scream?"

Ms Shenton said the girl had been embarrassed about being called a 'sl*g' by two strangers who walked past. She added: "How does she react? 'I was raped'. It is a get out of jail free card. This was not a rape, it was a shameful encounter."

She should be struck off. How many rape myths can you get in 1 speech???? I thought this kind of defence had been banned.

The victim said No. More than once. She did not say yes.

The details are truly appalling. Also from the MEN article:

It was put to her by Rachel Shenton, representing the now 16-year-old, that there was flirting on the tram. "My friend pointed and said I like[d] him as a joke," she said. "But it didn't come from my mouth."

"Did you point to one of them and say 'I would sh*g him'?," Ms Shenton asked. "No," the girl replied. "Did you fancy one of them?," she was asked. "No," the girl said.

So if your friend says you fancy someone, they've got carte blanche to rape you???

I really hope there's an appeal.

Rape and sexual assault against women and girls is being decriminalised, both in terms of verdicts and sentencing.
The judiciary in this country is a disgrace. There is clearly an agenda.

I think that they should.

Especially boys.

We have a government that won’t implement the Supreme Court ruling so why on earth would men and boys think that they need to listen to women and girls?
This won’t end until ALL men and boys are punished for every misdemeanour. Surely they will they be punished for assault instead?

I feel physically sick, it feels like a complete minimisation of sexual violence against girls and women. I hope theres an appeal. None of this makes much sense to me. Poor child.

You don’t need independent evidence in a criminal case. What are you talking about? That shouldn’t even be a factor in their decision making

And that fucking barrister is a fucking disgrace. How does she sleep at night?

This is where it all becomes unstuck.

How does a 12 year old girl ‘consent’ to being raped/having sex with three boys?? How can she consent to an act whereby she does not know what it will involve or what the repercussions will be for her physically or emotionally or psychologically? The very premise of consent under these circumstances is laughable to the extreme.

What a terrible world we’re living in when three boys believe this is acceptable. Where a 12 year old girl is traumatised for life. Twice. Once by the boys and then again by the courts. Where people believe a 12 year can ‘consent’ to that experience. Because what? Where a female barrister (deliberately chosen to be female) relishes attacking the testimony of a young vulnerable girl. Where our ‘anything goes’ social media, online pornified saturated content is readily available. And the Labour allegedly do-gooder MPs vote against a ban.

Just what have we come to?

My concern (beyond that for the girl involved) is this topic might be subject to a review in 20 years, but only if someone stands up and shouts loudly every day.

Where on earth do boys get the idea that this is a normal activity?
Vileness beyond my nightmares.

What sex mix were the jurors?

Brilliantly said.

How would we ever know that?