I saw the episode.
My feeling is that it is part of an on going story line about Maddie's life falling apart and her not being in control and that everything is her fault and is trying to cover up everything thats going on to her friends as much as possible. She blames her parents break up on herself too. She made it very clear to the guy that having accepted drinks did not mean she owed him anything - something that in the past I think might have been handled differently. She was then rescued by Esther who she has long had an issue with as she is still at school and so she looks down her nose at. Esther hasn't told anyone else what happened and has continued to be bullied.
So whilst, I think it wasn't handled well, I do think its part of a bigger story and that it needs to be seen in this context too. I do feel that the incident will come back into the storyline as an important one - I'm not totally convinced its all done and dusted completely yet.
As for the Gilly incident. The jury decision was one thing, but how the story later evolved was interesting and shouldn't be ignored. Credit should be given to Hollyoaks for how they resolved it. Trouble is, this wasn't given the same publicity as the trial was.
There was an episode where Gilly and Jackie confront each other about it and discuss it, and eventually Gilly admits what he did crossed the line and that Jackie did not say No but equally she did not say Yes either. He left Hollyoaks afterwards. Jackie didn't get her justice, but she was shown that she was right and he was wrong and that the justice system isn't supporting women like Jackie and that men need to think more about 'Yes' meaning 'Yes'.
Perhaps its not the message you want out there, as it could put women off reporting rape, but I'm not sure you can criticise Hollyoaks too heavily for it given it was a good reflection of reality and that Gilly is eventually shown to be the bad guy and is forced to admit that despite the fact he initially felt he was innocent that he wasn't.
I wouldn't want something like Hollyoaks to always be about giving the morally right story. Its power is in showing the bad side of things in a natural way, warts and all rather than always doing the right thing. I think its a tricky balancing act and that it depends on what angle of the story is the main plot line.
In this case, the plot line is about Maddie's struggle with her parents divorce, and how she isn't coping with all these other things that are being thrown at her in the process of her life falling apart. She is being dismissive of how much everything is affecting her, not just that incident. It would be out of character given what she's going through to act differently.
It might be giving out the wrong message, but does Hollyoaks have to have this social responsibility in every single story it runs? You wouldn't be able to show a realistic spiral of decline which is the way the story is heading, and you wouldn't be able to get to deeper issues as a result.
Looking at the incident in isolation, I DO think Hollyoaks could have handled it better. It should have been thought about with more consideration. But in the wider context of the storyline, I don't think Ofcom will do anything and I think the defence that Hollyoaks will always have is pretty much the above and in the context of Maddie's other issues and honestly, I think its probably fairly reflective of what would happen in reality.