Rape outcry fuels debate on consent
A bizarre legal anomaly means boys can legally have intercourse when they are 15, but girls must be 17
CHANGES to the law on sexual consent are urgently required, leading campaigners have warned in the wake of two high-profile and controversial rape cases.
Twenty-one- year- old student Ruairi Dougal, from Donegal, was cleared in Britain last week of raping a drunken woman when a judge ruled that “ drunken consent is still consent”. The case provoked a furious outcry on both sides of the Irish Sea.
Ruari Dougal refused to comment on the trial. But a statement from his solicitor read: “Ruairi Dougal has always maintained that the complainant did consent to sexual intercourse at all stages and that she was fully conscious when intercourse occurred.
“He made a voluntarystatement to this effect at the very early stages of the police investigation and he continues to deny emphatically that he had intercourse without the complainant’s knowledge and consent.”
The Rape Crisis Network said the case underlined Ireland’s urgent need for a legal definition of consent. Executive director Fiona Neary said: “We were all the more aghast at the judge’s comments because the UK at least has a definition of consent. A person there consents if he or she agrees by choice and has the freedom and capacity tomake that choice. In Ireland, there is no legal definition of consent and we desperately need one as consent is the main issue in rape cases.”
Meanwhile, a separate statutory rape case in Galway last week sparked a heated debate on Ireland’s “clumsy” age of consent laws. A 20-year-old Galway man will learn on Tuesday whether or not he faces a prison term for having sex with his girlfriend when she was 15 and he was 19. The man, who can not be identified in order to protect his lover’s identity, was in Galway Circuit Criminal Court last week to appeal an 11-month prison sentence, handed down by Tuam District Court in July, for four counts of having unlawful carnal knowledge of an underage girl.
Judge Raymond Groarke deferred his decision and asked the court: “How do I approach sentence in such a way as it will act as a deterrent?”
The couple have been lovers since April 2004, but when the girl’s parents discovered the liaison they brought their daughter to the Gardai and reported the crime. The girl made a statement which she subsequently sought to withdraw.
When he was arrested, the young man told Gardai he loved his girlfriend and would stand by her come what may. The young lovers continued to see each other and within weeks the girl was pregnant. The couple are now parents to a 10-month-old baby and live together with the young man’s mother. The man is unemployed and cares for the baby full-time while the girl studies for her Leaving Cert. Both grandmothers were in court to support the couple.
When defence barrister Paul McGettigan told the court: “Her mother is full of praise for him. He is a good father,” Judge Groarke replied: “ Notwithstanding that he raped her daughter, in law?”
Mr McGettigan then sparked a debate which has continued outside the courtroom by suggesting the age of consent law should be changed to more accurately reflect the reality of sexual activity between teenagers.
Mr McGettigan said: “Insociety at the moment it is a very difficult one. Maybe the law should be changed.” But the judge strongly disagreed and said: “It should not. Should 15year-old girls become targets? They should not.”
Mr McGettigan went on: “It is rampant in society and at a much younger age.” To which the judge replied, “Perhaps it is time courts started jailing young men who behave in this fashion and maybe young ladies too.”
The judge had earlier objected to a Garda referring to the girl as “the injured party” and said: “ Was any charge brought against her? She is a conspirator. She was part of a conspiracy to commit an indictable crime.”
When Mr McGettigan pointed out that underage sex has “become more acceptable in recent years” and was “tolerated” by society, the judge described his comments as “outrageous”. He said: “Are you telling me that society finds it acceptable behaviour? Because if it does, then I’m living in the wrong century.”
The Irish Family Planning Association last night called for a review of the age of consent laws which it described as “confused”. Chief executive Niall Behan said: “We need to separate the issues around child abuse and young people having consensual sex. We really need to have some clarity around the age of consent as it is very confusing at the moment.”
A bizarre legal anomaly means boys can legally have heterosexual intercourse when they are 15, but girls must wait until they are 17. The Attorney- General has made this clear, but a number of government agencies continue to state that the age of consent is 17 for both sexes.
Mr Behan said: “It should be the same for both sexes. Our studies show that a lot of youngsters are making their sexual debut at 16.
“The age of consent is an important issue as it may deter young people from seeking support and services if they fear they may be reported for breaking the law. There needs to be a debate on this issue and it needs to be in the context of a national sexual health strategy,” he said.
The Rape Crisis Network echoed calls for a debate, but Ms Neary argues the age of consent should be raised to “17 or 18 for both sexes”.
She said: “ We welcome Judge Groarke’s comments which uphold the fact that there is an issue as to whether consent can be given at 15. There is a significant age gap here. If both parties had been 15, it would be a very different case. I am not aware of any convictions for sexual activity between teenagers of similar ages. The law exists to protect the vulnerable from exploitation and it is a complex area which is why we have judicial discretion.
“The current law is somewhat clumsy. We know teenagers become sexually active at different ages, but whether this is to be encouraged or not is a different matter.”