Undergraduate rape case sends a clear message: ‘I wasn’t into it’ must not be confused with sexual assault
THIS is International Women’s Day so, on behalf of my sex, I would like to apologise to Lewis Tappenden. Poor Lewis has just joined the rapidly growing list of young men who have what they believe to be consensual sex with a young woman, only to find themselves accused of rape.
Mercifully, a jury at York Crown Court took just two hours yesterday to clear the 24-year-old of the appalling charges made against him by an 18year-old undergraduate. But the case illuminates an alarming trend.
On the one hand, girls are asserting their right to behave every bit as recklessly, drunkenly and promiscuously as the male of the species. Then, when it comes to “the crunch”, suddenly they are Edwardian ladies who get a fit of the vapours. As the girl in question explained to her flatmate; “I wasn’t into it”. Shame she didn’t think of that when she approached Lewis in a bar and invited him to come back to her hall of residence for anonymous, no-strings sex. “I don’t want to know you afterwards – I just want to ---- you,” she explained.
Earlier, the girl, a first-year undergraduate at York St John University, had played a drinking game with friends and told them she was going to “pull”. CCTV footage showed her and Lewis laughing and kissing in the lift. Once in her room, they stripped naked, got into bed and had sex. At some point, Lewis went to the bathroom to be sick and when he returned the girl was gone. She had left her room to wake up her flatmates. She told one of them that “it got a bit weird” and she wasn’t into it. No mention of any violence.
Lewis left without names having been exchanged. Imagine his horror when police informed him that the nameless girl had accused him of rape, claiming that she said “No”, but that Lewis had held her down.
Within a short while, the English literature graduate, described as gentle, thoughtful and reserved by friends, had gone from being someone who was “pulled” to “the attacker”. The girl, who approached him for an anonymous shag was now “the victim”.
In court, the prosecuting barrister told the jury that they were not there to pass judgment on morals. “Welcome to the world of modern students, going out every night, drinking to excess, picking up members of the opposite sex, with the intention of some sexual activity taking place.” He added, however, that the young woman had the right to change her mind. Lewis Tappenden “knew why he was there, he knew what he wanted and he carried on regardless”. While the girl may “initially” have wanted something to happen, “when it came to the crunch, she no longer wanted it to take place”.
Buyer’s remorse will be a familiar sensation to any female who had a sexually active youth. How many of us have woken up in our birthday suit next to a vaguely familiar figure and thought, “Omigod, really?” There will be just as many who, during the act itself, have decided that forgoing that third Brandy Alexander might have been the better option.
If women truly believed “I wasn’t that into it” constituted rape, then half of all blokes in Britain would be behind bars.
This is what we call life experience. If it makes us feel embarrassed or stupid or we must never do it again, then that’s good; it’s supposed to. To confuse a sozzled encounter which goes awry with sexual assault is not just wrong, it can amount to a crime . Lewis Tappenden says he was so overcome with shame at the thought of appearing in court on a charge of rape that he seriously considered taking his own life. “I’m not a violent person in any scenario,” he said, “I understand what consent is. I feel my life has been ruined.”
And he’s right. Should any future children google Lewis’s name, the first words they will see are “rape trial”. And for what? Lewis was picked up and taken back to the girl’s room for one purpose. They were two consenting adults. Yet, it is the young woman who gets to preserve her anonymity while Lewis’s reputation is trashed. No wonder he wept when the Not Guilty verdict was announced.
Any decent copper would have seen that this was no case of sexual assault. Sadly, coppers are no longer permitted to use their nous when it comes to rape. In a system of justice based on innocent until proven guilty, people who make allegations are not supposed to be “believed” until their claims are tested in court. Nor are they “the victim” until a crime has been proved. But such is the desperation of the Crown Prosecution Service to boost its conviction rate for rape that more and more cases like Lewis Tappenden’s are brought to trial.
In January, Durham University student Alastair Cooke became the third undergraduate to be cleared of rape in the past year. Each of these young men faced a living hell because their young female accusers prefer not to take personal responsibility for their actions. Rape is a heinous crime. That’s why allegations should never be made lightly.
In future, we may need to look into identifying women who have made mischievous and unsubstantiated claims of rape against innocent guys like Lewis Tappenden.
On International Women’s Day, girls should not just be made aware of their rights, but also their responsibilities.
‘Buyer’s remorse will be a familiar sensation to any female who has had a sexually active youth’