Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
SAY NO .. OR IT IS NOT A RAPE
Fury as ‘cases could collapse’
ALLEGED rapists could be in the clear if their accuser did not say “no”, the Director of Public Prosecutions says.
Alison Saunders said men in these types of cases may have had a “reasonable belief ” they had been given consent for sex.
It means the accused would not be charged even if complainants were convinced they were raped, she added.
Some campaigners called for Ms Saunders to be sacked over the comments.
She said yesterday: “We have never done the extreme of if someone says they’ve been raped or just wants to shout rape then that’s enough. We look at two stages: the capacity to consent, also... did the suspect have a reasonable belief in consent?
“So in some of the cases you can see why even though the complainant may think they were raped, there was a reasonable belief that they had consented, either through silence or through other actions or whatever.”
She added: “We want to get it right. Prosecutors... know they are dealing with people’s lives.”
But Molly Rose, an advocate for survivors of sexual violence, said: “Fire Alison Saunders now.”
There has been a spate of recent cases where men charged with rape were dramatically acquitted. It led to claims prosecutors were too keen to put people in the dock in the hope of increasing the number of rape convictions. In 2015 Ms Saunders announced tougher rules that put the onus on men accused of sex attacks to prove they had consent. She said it would move the legal system “well beyond the old saying ‘no means no’.” Ms Saunders added in 2015 that rape victims should no longer be “blamed” if they are too drunk to consent to sex or if they freeze and say nothing due to being terrified. Former Met police commissioner Lord Blair has warned that granting anonymity to alleged sex attackers up until charge may hinder cases where publicity leads to more victims coming forward.