Captain Nemo wrote on Oct 26
th, 2022 at 1:39pm:
Here's the thing:
Zero physical evidence.
No DNA. Zero, zip, nada.
The defendant is not claiming that he had sex with the other party and that she was willing but then said stop.
The defendant is claiming there was no sex at all.
I'm going on what I have been able to gather from the case reports in the media.
So, whether I think there was a rape or not has no bearing on the point I am making which is:
Without any physical evidence at all of any sexual activity and no independent witness as to what may have or may not have taken place, the jury MUST have some level of reasonable doubt.
After 4 days + they can't reach a unanimous finding.
Why? Because DOUBT prevails!
The burden of proof is BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT!
He's going to get off!
We just need to accept it was a difficult case and learn a few lessons.
I've stated what these lessons are previously. As women we must be vigilant and diligent at all times! IF we know we are going to be drinking alcohol at some function then we need to plan ahead regarding how we get home in a timely and safe manner. The same applies to our daughters, nieces, female cousins. We just have to plan ahead and be very careful. Also we need to talk more about rape/sexual assault/intimidation etc because it can take years for someone to speak up about work related issues like this. It took me 30 years to speak up about what happened to me and I only did so because of this case AND the passage of time helped me a bit too.
I don't want to see another case like this before the courts. It's clearly been stressful for those involved as well as for others who have sons, daughters or have been previously sexually assaulted/raped.
Moving forward I think Australia needs to have more open conversations about how we can keep ourselves and others safe at functions/get togethers.