Just how long is this bloke going to contiue to get away with it?
As long as women don’t report assaults as they won’t be believed and will be dragged through a court process that will question the woman’s sexual past to discredit them.
I’ve been told this is quite an interesting programme on how young people view sexual assault
The good thing now is that more and more of these cases are being successfully prosecuted so hopefully will that encourage more people to come forward, The process in never going to be easy and the defence will do what they can to protect their clients, but it is encouraging that celebrities are no longer seen as untouchable by the law - Jim fixed that for us!
I don’t agree with the last statement. Savile was untouchable until after he died.
Gf was telling me about a girl she met recently who is a forensic gynecologist. It’s no wonder so few cases are actually reported, the process is fucking horrific.
It takes hours, and you are poked and prodded all over having just been attacked. You are then made to go over everything that happened in painstaking detail, whilst being recorded and/or video by a number of people. Questioning everything you say, whether or not you led the attacker on, or gave them the wrong impression.
And then, yeah. You’re entire sexual history is delved into, what you were wearing, if you had been drinking or not. Basically, looking in anyway if the victim deserved it. It’s disgusting. I get that authorities have to be thorough, but there could certainly a bit a more sensitivity.
This leads to a huge number of victims of sexual assualt (of all genders) not reporting, and in the overwhelming of cases no conviction is ever made. Which leads to awful people assuming that no charge = the victim is lying and there is a culture of false accusations that get thrown around “becuase they regretted it”, which means victims aren’t believed when they do speak out, and so the cycle goes on.
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That is my point Pap. Him and his fellow celebrities used to get away with all sorts but now he has gone and his dirty deeds have been aired people are more likley to accept that celebs arent above the law and need to be held accountable for their behaviour.
Things have improved a great deal for victims KRG. Up until recently I worked at the CPS and for a time worked closely with the Rape & Serious Sexual Offences Unit. Interviews are at home or in special victims and witness suites and are very sympathetically done. They give evidence on camera and this is called ABE (Achieving Best Evidence). The discs are kept locked away and are only seen by the CPS prosecutor, the defence solicitor and the barristers invloved in the case. Yes there is a process that the victims have to go through involving providing DNA samples etc but that has to be done as part of the evidence gathering. There is a process now where the victim is assumed to be telling the truth right from the start. It is never going to be an easy process for victims but a great deal has been done to make it less of a horror show. My neighbour, who still works there and is a senior lawyer in the unit has been heavily involved in the changes made to the prosecution process.
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I do get it. I’m not saying they are doing it to put people off, but I can totally understand why it can be an extremely offputting process for victims.
It’s good that things are improving. I hope that continues.
They realised a while back that the judicial process was seen as being worse sometimes than the actual assault so made huge changes to try and help people through what is never going to be a pleasant process. Unfortunately the defence are there to discredit the victims and witnesses and that is still a problem area. Defendants have every right to a robust defence but some of it goes too far. There are all kinds of things being done, like giving evidence behind screens or by video link, but you still have to go through cross examination, which much be horrific I would imagine. It is good to see that more is being done to educate young people about what rape is. The more we can prevent this in the first place the better, but sadly some men will commit rape and sexual assualt no matter what we try and do to stop it.
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Originally posted by @Sadoldgit
That is my point Pap. Him and his fellow celebrities used to get away with all sorts but now he has gone and his dirty deeds have been aired people are more likley to accept that celebs arent above the law and need to be held accountable for their behaviour.
Which is more than fair enough, and it’s a win that we will now prosecute entertainers for these offences. However, you and I both know that most of the celebrity prosecutions serve another agenda in addition to providing closure to the victims. That’s largely keeping the establishment crims out of nick.
Not really an either/or situation for me. Both groups need to be pursued, and I’d argue the Westminster lot need to be pursued more vigorously.
Thats the next step. Now that celebrity status doesnt grant you immunity from sex crimes now it is time to prove the some is true for the Establishment. Not that there should be any steps. These people should have been prosecuted at the time!
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