For the above bench book, here is the illustarion given for Judges to help them sum up to a juries on how they should regard sexual misconceptions. The Judge sums up only once the prosecution and defence have closed their cases.
Where the Judge is cautioning against misconception suggested by the defence
"The complainant was in a hen party which went to the nightclub at 11pm. There were 12 young women in the party, all scantily dressed. They were drinking in rounds and many were drunk, as the complainant
says she was. They danced with each other and they danced with men. The complainant told you that she danced with men she knew and did not know. She accepted that she was flirtatious with more than one of them. She danced with the defendant with whom she had had sexual intercourse on two previous occasions about 12 months before, during a relationship which had lasted 3 weeks. She kissed him and agreed that she went willingly with him outside the club for a cigarette. In the course of cross examination, it was suggested to the complainant that she was perfectly prepared for sex that night; that she was broadcasting her willingness by the way she dressed and the way she behaved; that she would not have kissed the defendant if she had not fancied him; that she expected when they went outside that there would be sexual contact between them.
I will summarise the evidence for you in a moment, including the complainant’s answers to those suggestions, but, first, I need to address the assumptions which appear to me to underpin counsel’s questions. Each of us knows, and it is certainly the experience of the courts, that people young and not so young can behaved in a socially disinhibited manner. Scantily dressed young women celebrating in hen parties is by no means unusual, nor is heavy drinking by young women during a night out, nor is flirtatious behaviour in nightclubs. We all know that alcohol and atmosphere can lead to disinhibited behaviour including sexual behaviour.
However, there appeared to be an assumption behind counsel’s questions that any one of this group of young women, just because they were behaving in an uninhibited manner during their night out, would have been prepared to engage in sexual activity with any man who happened to take a fancy to her, especially if that man was known to her and there had been a previous relationship between them. Is the realistic position this: a woman may or may not be prepared to engage in sexual activity with a particular man, depending upon the circumstances of the encounter and the mutual feelings between them? What you should not do is judge the intentions or inclinations of the complainant on this occasion by the application of a generalised assumption about people’s behaviour. What you should do is reach conclusions based upon the evidence."