“A raped woman is framed socially and within the law as something broken. Neither Madonna nor whore but somewhere in between. The carrier of bad luck. There is a general but grudging acceptance that it isn’t really her fault, but if she had done something else, gone in another direction, not had that drink or worn that dress or smiled that way, it might never have happened…”From ‘The Story of Jane Doe: A Book about Rape’ (Random House, 2003 at 118)
1982: Judge Bertram Richards said that a teenager who had been raped was “guilty of a great deal of contributory negligence” by hitchhiking home late at night. www.newint.org/issue187/death.htm
1983: Judge Brian Gibbens, 76, said he had “considerable sympathy” for a 35-year-old builder who had sex with a seven-year-old girl, and added: “It strikes me as one of the kinds of accidents which could almost happen to anyone.” justice.org.nz/pubs/reports/1999/family_conference/author_24.html
1986: Mr Justice Leonard, the High Court Judge in the Ealing Vicarage rape trial, said, “the trauma suffered by the victim was not so very great.” He gave the burglar who organised the raid a much harsher sentence than the two rapists and was later hauled up for placing more value on property than on person. telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/08/nsaward08.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/03/08/ixhome.html
1988: Judge Sir Harold Cassel QC said that an ex-policeman was driven to indecently assaulting his twelve-year-old mentally-retarded stepdaughter because his wife’s diminished desire for sex during her pregnancy had caused “considerable problems for a healthy young husband”. He accused the woman of ‘encouraging’ the assaults although the she said, “As far as the sexual side, my husband did not go without the whole time through my pregnancy, so I do not know where the judge got his information from.” bunker8.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Sue/body.htm
1991: Sir Arthur Myerson reduced rapist Brian David Huntley’s sentence because he “showed concern and consideration by wearing a contraceptive.” news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1263875.stm; http://homes.cerias.purdue.edu/~spaf/Yucks/V1/msg00061.html
1993: Judge Ian Starforth Hill described an eight-year-old victim of a sexual attack as “not entirely an angel”. business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article2876160.ece
1993: Judge John Prosser let a 15-year-old rapist go free ordering him to pay his teenage victim £500 “for a good holiday”. business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article2876160.ece
1993: Judge Smedley in a case heard at the Old Bailey explained why evidence of the victim’s distress should be disregarded: “A word of warning. If the account the complainant is giving was completely fabricated you may think she is clever, then clever enough to act out distress”. bunker8.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Sue/body.htm
2003: Judge Richard Benson, a circuit judge, gave a 58-year-old father a three-year community rehabilitation order for repeatedly molesting his daughter while her mother was shopping when she was seven and eight since he thought the case was at “the more bland edge of the spectrum”. guardian.co.uk/world/2003/dec/16/law.ukcrime
2006: Judge Addison passed a suspended sentence of nine months on a swimming instructor, Ross Sweet, who sexually assaulted two eight-year-old girls on two occasions and praised him for being a good and caring teacher. thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article65397.ece; news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6288819.stm; telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/23/njudges123.xml
2007: Judge Julian Hall said to Eric Cole, 71, who had sexually assaulted a six-year-old: “In criminal terms, what you did was quite mild.” He ordered Cole to pay his victim compensation of £250, adding: “If it buys her a nice new bicycle, that’s the sort of thing that might cheer her up.” dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=433514&in_page_id=1766
2008: Judge Julian Hall of the Oxford Crown Court said a ten-year-old girl had dressed provocatively while letting her rapist, Keith Fenn, 24, and his accomplice Darren Wright, 34, off with astonishingly lenient sentences. news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21969117-663,00.html
Incidentally, rape is apparently not illegal under Nigerian law. worldivided.com/2007/12/07/when-submission-becomes-a-routine/
In 1913, Rebecca West said: “I myself have never been able to find out what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.”Edit this entry.
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