Oxford Union president rape allegations - alumni open letter

[FairPhyllis]

The president of the Oxford Union (which is a debating society at Oxford), Ben Sullivan, is currently being investigated over allegations of rape and attempted rape of two undergraduates at the university. He is refusing to resign or suspend his presidency. Speakers are beginning to pull out of events.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10845979/Oxford-Union-boycott-after-president-returns-despite-police-investigation-into-rape-allegations.html

If you are a member of the university or an Oxford alumna/us, and feel strongly about the minimisation of rape and sexual assault "on campus" there is an open letter you can sign here calling for Sullivan to step aside while under investigation. It is organised by the OUSU VP (Women) and other students.

[Chachah]

just here to say that having made the mistake to read a comments section about this, I cannot believe how uneducated people are, and there needs to be something done about it.

man found not guilty does NOT equal woman found to be a liar. FFS. Is that so difficult to understand?

[FloraFox]

peckham doing jury duty three times does not make you an authority on the legal system or how lawyers work. An accused person does not need to give evidence, the defence can be presented through cross-examination by defence counsel. Famous people tend to give evidence because they are concerned about the public's perception of them.

I find it odd that you have had such a clearly unrepresentative experience (100% conviction rate) but you are so resolutely saying there are no problems in the criminal justice system and how it deals with rape cases based on your experience.

[BillnTedsMostFeministAdventure]

Flora, to be fair to Peckham, I think he/she is right that the conviction rate once cases get to court is similar as other serious crimes and that there are large problems with the amount of cases that get to court.

(I think it could be argued that it should be higher as more cases fall out at an earlier stage therefore any that have made it through have met a "higher standard" of evidence in some way)

Beyond the verdict, though, as I linked to upthread somewhere, I have a lot of problems with the attitude of some judges to sentencing and their accompanying comments.

[PeckhamPearlz]

Thanks Bill - for one moment I was thinking that I'd slipped into a parallel universe where everything you say is misunderstood and misrepresented.

I'd better get used to that round here I suppose...

[BillnTedsMostFeministAdventure]

Comments like that prob won't help, Peckham!

[PeckhamPearlz]

s'pose not
just call me Pearl btw

[PeckhamPearlz]

Here's the CPS announcement for the conviction rate for rape last year

An 'all time high' of 63% for rape and 74% for DV

www.cps.gov.uk/news/latest_news/dpp_announces_new_conviction_rate_in_rape_and_domestic_violence_cases/

[PeckhamPearlz]

And here's the official government statistics report

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/214970/sexual-offending-overview-jan-2013.pdf

Forgive me for cherry picking from it ...

Number of women raped - 85,000

Number of men raped - 12,000

Number of cases committed for trial at crown court - 2,747

So do we worry more about the details of the thousand or so cases that fail to secure a conviction at trial, or the 94,000 cases that never get there?

That's all I'm sayin'

[FloraFox]

Pearl from those reports, of the men who plead not guilty in Crown Court, only 39% were found guilty.

One of the reasons women don't report or don't proceed to court is because of the ordeal they go through during trial and the low likelihood of a guilty verdict.

I'm not saying that we don't do anything about the cases that never get there but most people acknowledge that problems in the court system contribute to the unwillingness of women to report and proceed with their case. The report you linked to was reported here:

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/100000-assaults-1000-rapists-sentenced-shockingly-low-conviction-rates-revealed-8446058.html

A spokesperson for Rape Crisis England said:

“It is a chicken and egg situation: women do not report offences because they know they are very unlikely to get a conviction. They know they would have to put themselves through a system which is very traumatic and are likely to come out at the other end with no justice.”

We can make changes in the justice system to make convictions more likely. That would help more women come forward.

[PeckhamPearlz]

Flora well I think we can finally agree.

Yes there's still lots to do but I just wanted to say that the process I saw in the case a couple of years ago was just centuries ahead of the first one I sat on about 25 years ago.

Now I'm off out for a drink - g'night all.