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.

Isn’t this different if the boy (as here) is also under 16 though? Specifically to deal with the situation of 2 14 year olds agreeing to have sex being different to a 17 year old having sex with a 14 yea old?

My understanding is that’s where the hard line of 12 (can’t consent under any circumstances) comes in

That is correct

The law doesn't tend to prosecute similar-aged teen couples having consensual sex though.

This was clearly not consensual, though...

It's worse, the jurors will think they are "lads," as juries are so skewed in sexual assault cases. Women who have been assaulted can be excused early on and even women who cry at evidence or footage cam be excused (my friend was swapped a few days in for getting upset at a CSA case). Think about how many women this is excluding and who was left to fill up the jury?

I think so too.

The crying thing feels awful but I can see that technically it could be argued that crying suggests they already believe the crime happened before having heard all the evidence. Difficult not to cry at a video clearly showing assault, though...

It is a concern but I’d refuse to be a juror in a rape case. Having worked for the CPS many years ago (more admin than legal) if a case even got to court then there was ridiculous amounts of evidence - more than many other crimes. But then the victim has to fight something worse that her rapist - 1000 years of cultural and systemic misogyny and rape myth. This is from barristers, judges and jurors.

No way am I sitting with 11 other “peers” and listening to that shit.

It's entirely possible she thought it would be a consensual snog and a secretive fumble, not to be gang raped.

I don't disagree with you but judges can be required to revisit their training and guidance, they should - in theory - have the capacity to understand and critical thinking. There are some godawful judges out there but the make up of juries is too full of aggression and bias.

Your accusations are completely unwarranted. I've been clear throughout thus thread that I believe it was a disgusting miscarriage if justice on the part of the jury.

Questioning a specific issue in pps does NOT mean that I'm saying this poor 12yo girl is lying or was not assaulted.

Why is the makeup of juries so bad, so often? If they're randomly picked, does that mean most of society endorses rape myths? Or is there something else going on re how they're selected?

The law allows for where both parties are under the age of consent and both are consenting. They would not be prosecuted, in England at least, if both parties said they consented.

This is not the place for talking about how boys are so hard done by, and how they are the victims of sexist attitudes/behaviour and why we need to look out for them too.

If you want to discuss that, start a thread about that, it is so fucking disrespectful to rape victims for you to be saying “but what about the boys? Someone needs to protect the boys”.

Boys and men are already offered more than women and girls are in the way of protection in the world.

This post is completely inappropriate, the poster is doing no such thing

Oh I remember this case - it was the vicarage one wasn't it? That's why her anonymity was blown. And I remember - all those years ago - being incensed when her father (the vicar) announced that she was the jewel in his crown but that he forgave the attackers for her rape! Unbelievable even then.

You misunderstood my post, I can see it wasn't clear. I apologise.

I used the word 'sexist' because I feel it would arguably be sexist to women if this were a case where 2 teens had consensual sex and the girl was immediately assumed to be a victim of assault. I didn't mean 'sexist against boys'.

However, I was clear that I was NOT talking about this particular case, it's clear it was not consensual. (Apart from the the idiotic jury...)

On this comment : ' Boys and men are already offered more than women and girls are in the way of protection in the world.' I don't think male victims of sexual abuse are offered more protection.

But clearly male perpetrators are..

My DS did his law dissertation on this (juries generally not rape cases specifically), the statistics are not good on education and bias. I don't have any info to hand but there are lots of studies out there on it - rape myths are a big part of it and protecting men's careers and lives in terms of not being punished.

The boy who was deemed unfit for trial would have been deemed unable to defend himself due to his disabilities. So it went to fact finding. The jury decided he didn't do the things he was accused of.

@Carla786 if you haven't seen it already, do watch The Jury Channel 4, it's an eye opener but also not - you'll know what I mean when you see it.

Yes, that's the one.

Agree with this.

Yes Im bound to offend someone when I say this, so I'll say it and be damned

I have a theory which is born out of anecdotes that the average juror is fairly illinformed and uneducated

Reason being, anyone with quite a professional job, or a fairly successful self employed business does not have the time to dedicate what could be weeks and weeks on a jury, so are likely to ask for deferment or excused. You can only do this once or twice I learned when I was at university, I couldnt guarantee when my service would come and didnt want to risk my exams, so I turned it down and therefore was taken off the list (probably not describing the process right, it was nearly 40 years ago)

Self employed people do not get anywhere near the expenses needed to justify them being off work for any length of time. You need a reasonable employer who will pay you to make it worth while.

So that leaves, retired people, unemployed and possibly unemployable people, full time parents (who may or may not be full time parents by want of not really being able or willing to enter the world of work).
Yes of course that isnt the full cohort and there are lots of educated and able people on juries but I would wager that the first categories outweigh them in terms of numbers and availability.

ITV news says the video clip is 10 seconds long. So it possibly shows the intercourse but not much more.

Unbelievable. Jesus said people should forgive wrongs done to them. Not forgive wrongs done to other people....!