Ulster Rugby Rape Trial - Not guilty to all charges

[Quimby]

Verdict just returned
Not guilty to all four accused, all unanimous decisions.

[TheLastSoala]

I very highly recommend the book “Night Games” by Anna Krien.

It’s an investigation of a rape of a girl in strickingly similar circumstances to this one, by members of a top Aussie Rules team.

It won the 2014 sports book of the year, and sensitively and intelligently goes into numerous aspects of the culture around sex within sports teams, how they are protected and why it is so hard to get convictions. As well as finding ways to look even handedly at the actions of everyone associated.

[SpringNowPlease2018]

pallisers "I would do anything I could to stop my daughters reporting a rape."

um, what?

My mum warned me from a very young age to treat men with caution. As I became I a teenager I formed my own interpretation - treat them with extreme suspicion. If I had daughters I would be asking to do the same. There's no risk or problems in treating men with extreme suspicion.

I recently refused to let someone in my block of flats because I didn't recognise - I literally had to stand there and say "I don't recognise you, stand aside while I let the door close properly". He was very unhappy but I told him to fuck off. I'm sure he'll have a go if he sees me in the building - if he really is a neighbour - but I have a friend who was viciously attacked by someone who wandered in through the door behind her.

[PanGalaticGargleBlaster]

So the jurors, who sat through every day of the trial and listened to all the evidence, got it wrong?

[Rufustherenegadereindeer1]

I agree with rockshandy

Hope she is ok and has support, she was very brave

[Beerincomechampagnetastes]

I believe her.

[treaclesoda]

It's not so much that the jurors have got it wrong it's that the legal system is so very heavily stacked in favour of predatory men, not their victims.

[CapnHaddock]

I would never report my rapists. I know they wouldn't be convicted

[CecilyNeville]

I am actually quite surprised - I really, really thought that this case had a good chance of a guilty verdict; I must be more naive than I thought.

The poor woman. The reports of her on the stand showed her to have outstanding resolve and character. I hope she's well supported.

[SonicVersusGynaephobia]

And so the lesson for any predatory men out there is, if you want to rape a woman, do it with a friend, and then you'll get away with it, even when your stories both don't match up.

[pallisers]

pallisers "I would do anything I could to stop my daughters reporting a rape."

um, what?

just that. I can't imagine a circumstance where I think it would be in my daughters' best interest to report a rape and endure the examination, the investigation, the possible refusal to prosecute, the trial and the high probability of not being believed. Look at what this woman has endured. Her vulva was filmed and shown to a doctor hired by the defendants and then discussed in court. She was cross examined for 8 days and disbelieved in 3 hours. Look at the woman in the US who was found by the dumpster and her rapist was found guilty and given a 6 month sentence. The child raped by Roman Polanski has said that the trial was more traumatic than the rape.

I certainly wouldn't want that for my daughters if they were unlucky enough to be raped.

And you can treat men with as much caution and suspicion as you like. You are still at risk. Rape doesn't happen because women aren't cautious.

[HairyBallTheorem]

Highly offensive but predictable piece of DARVO from CritEqual there.

Because we live in a rape culture, there is sod-all point in women reporting, because the standard required from them is so absurdly high, and the cock-and-bull stories accepted as sufficient to raise reasonable doubt so absurdly low ("fell penis first into her vagina", for instance) that all that happens in most cases is that women who report rape are subjected to a second psychological assault by the court system.

Women did not make this system of rape culture. To suggest that their efforts to survive in such a system is "contributing to rape culture" is as absurd as it is offensive.

[pallisers]

If you try to convince women not to report rapes you are directly contributing to rape culture.

Nope sorry. But fuck right off with that. It is not the victims responsibility to report or do anything at all. Victims to NOT contribute to rape culture. How about starting with preventing rape or changing the legal system so victims are more likely to report.

[CapnHaddock]

It doesn't work for rape and especially when there are multiple assailants. Sportsmen now have pretty much carte Blanche to rape women in packs now as our criminal justice system has been demonstrated to be completely incapable of securing a conviction

[Oweeeee]

I’m gutted for the victim. Cross examined by 4 barristers?

What got me was that the witness, the girl who opened the door specifically said she saw them having sex, quite clearly.

Both of them denied having sex at all, said there was no penetration whatsoever. Yet they’ve been beloved and the victim and this witness disbelieved.

I also think it’s an astonishingly short time to deliberate after such a long case

[GoldenWonderwall]

If they’re all so sure it never happened why put that poor woman through all that? It doesn’t take 8 days in court to discuss something that never happened. Stuff that never happened doesn’t even get to court.

No doubt these individuals will be back on the pitch in no time like all the other elite sportsmen that don’t rape women who they have had sex without consent with. Ffs.

[stitchglitched]

I completely agree with pallisers. I reported my rape but when they were charged I pulled out of going to trial. I wasn't contributing to rape culture, I was trying to protect myself and preserve what was left of my mental health within that culture. I believe her.

[SonicVersusGynaephobia]

Not "innocent", annie, just not able to be proved guilty beyond all reasonable doubt.

Big difference.

[BitOutOfPractice]

I am absolutely gutted for the victim - who I believe

Our criminal justice system just keeps on proving, again and again that women's safety and lives simply do not matter as much as men's

[anneoneill]

@SonicVersusGynaephobia if you're happy to argue that point in a libel case, good luck to you.

[herethereandeverywhere]

This just affirmed what is so wrong with our society and our justice system when it comes to rape.

I never reported my rape (by a known individual) because even 25 years ago as a 16 year old I knew how these things played out. I haven't regretted that decision for one moment. Despite wondering if he did it again like he did it to me.

I'd only ever report a rape and advise my DDs to do the same if it was the 'stranger jumps out of the bushes' scenario. Anything else and society is too willing to assume 'she asked for it'. previously knew assailant/on a date = can't be rape.

This is the most depressing piece of news I have heard for some time. Partly because I followed the case and had the feeling it would be decided this way.