Onus was put on the victim

RE: TEEN FOOTBALL PLAYERS ACQUITTED OF SEXUAL ASSAULT, JULY 20

Judge Fergus O’Donnell acquits four Niagara Falls teen boys of sexual assault.

Judge O’Donnell states, “The issues here focus on consent. Was the complainant capable of consent?” To continue he says, “A drunken person can have the required capacity to consent to sex. The person can even be quite intoxicated and still have that capacity.”

I don’t think so.

Do intoxicated drivers have the capacity of being rational behind the wheel? I don’t think so.

What about people coming to work drunk, will the employer allow them to continue because they have the capacity of being rational? I don’t think so.

The victim had a boyfriend. In her state of mind, I doubt she was a willing participant to have sex with four other males. If the young men had been “gentlemen,” they would have stepped back and not taken advantage, no matter how intoxicated she may have been.

If the parents of these boys have daughters, and it were under the same circumstances, how would you feel if boys took advantage?

I feel Judge O’Donnell put the onus on the victim, regardless of her mental capacity impaired by alcohol.

Lou Cesar

St. Catharines