Northern Ireland women! law change on rough sex defences – weekend action

[FionaMackenzie]

Hi all, Fiona from We Can't Consent to This here.

We're very pleased that the Northern Ireland Justice Dept is consulting on law change on rough sex defences, following the Westminster law changes which will apply in England and Wales. We support these proposals: and this is a fantastic chance for you to shape law and policy on this.

Please do respond this weekend if you can – the closing date is this Monday the 11th January.

Three women have been killed in NI where a rough sex claim has been used in defence, and these claims are also used in serious violent assaults. And we estimate that 100,000 NI women have been violently assaulted by partners in what was, til then, consensual sex.

There are 4 short consultation Qs to answer: we’ve pulled together a factsheet and our thoughts on the NI consultation questions here: wecantconsenttothis.uk/northern-ireland-consultation

Please spread the word - there is some opposition to this, so responding will definitely make a difference.

NI will later be looking at introducing a specific offence of non fatal strangulation - we'll let you know when we have an update on this.

Fiona and the We Can’t Consent To This team

Yes I’m aware of this, and happy to participate
Thanks for taking time to post about this

Bumping this thread.

I’ve bookmarked the page and will complete the consultation over the weekend.

Bumpy bump bump. I've shared with friends from home. Thank you for doing this work!

Will do!
Last weekend I was involved in an "incident". A knock on the door late morning; it was a woman I'd never seen before, with a toddler in arms, who lives in a flat on the same floor as me. She was in tears and asked for help, I let her in and comforted her. She said her partner had beaten her the night before and had pulled a knife on her, she was afraid he'd kill her one day.
He was still in their flat. They had broken up but he had returned to her before Christmas.
He knocked on my door but I did not answer. Later he drove away. He had a UK reg but unfortunately I did not manage to get it. She didn't know the reg.
I called the guards immediately and they were here in ten minutes, and spent quite some time with her. The guy's name was known to them; he's known in NI as well.
OK it's not a rough sex case, as far as I know, but domestic violence of any kind makes my blood boil. In the end she went to stay with her dad for a while. The guards asked me to keep a look out for the car and take down the reg if he returns. I most surely will.

What a sorry story Mahala I've had something similar when I lived alone, I was terrified but my neighbour more so. She moved out with her son not long after and I was always pretty nervous living next to him. They would have the most almighty rows, it wasn't the thin walls.

OP I have submitted a response and I will share.

TY all so much .

Still time to respond to this - and if you'd like a bonus action, you can contact your Assembly Members to make them aware of your support.

Malahaha am so glad your neighbour was able to reach you for support.

Is this just for NI alone? Or can UK citizens respond?

understand it's open to all with an interest @FannyCann

obviously keen that as many NI women as possible respond - so BUMP

Consultation completed. I found the guidance from We Can’t Consent To This very useful and I also added some thoughts of my own - don’t want the civil servant who compiles the data to discount replies that are overly similar. I tweeted the link to both the consultation and the guidance.

Fiona thanks for posting about this on Mumsnet, I wouldn’t have known about it otherwise and I’m very pleased to have been able to give my views on an important issue for women here - in NI normal folk don’t get many chances to get involved in giving input towards elements of the legal process.

TYSM @UtopiaPlanitia

The NI Department of Justice are also looking at non fatal strangulation law - we might get an outcome like the proposed Westminster law from yesterday

Will update if we hear more on what the DoJ are doing - including whether there will be a public consultation on that too.