‘Just shut your legs’ rape judge resigns
A Canadian judge who asked a rape accuser during a trial why she couldn’t just keep her knees together — later claiming that violent sex is “not necessarily a bad thing” — has been forced to step down.
Federal Court Justice Robin Camp resigned Thursday after a disciplinary council recommended that Canada’s Parliament boot him from the bench three years after the trial took place.
Camp, who was a provincial court judge at the time of the trial, chose to remove himself before the council could act on the recommendation, according to CBC News.
“I would like to express my sincere apology to everyone who was hurt by my comments during the trial,” Camp said in a statement. “I thank everyone who was generous and kind to me and my family in the last 15 months, par- ticularly my legal team.”
On Thursday, the Canadian Judicial Council ruled that Camp’s actions at the 2014 trial had been “so manifestly and profoundly destructive of the concept of impartiality, integrity and independence of the judicial role” that it would be inappropriate for him to hold his position any longer.
“That conduct included asking the complainant, a vulnerable 19-year-old woman, ‘why didn’t [she] just sink [her] bottom down into the basin so he couldn’t penetrate [her]’ and ‘why couldn’t [she] just keep [her] knees together,’ ” the council explained in its report.
Camp also claimed during the proceedings that “sex and pain sometimes go together” and that it’s “not necessarily a bad thing,” the report said.
He later argued that the comments stemmed from “unconscious bias.”
“While there is disagreement from the judge about the effect and consequences of his conduct, he has readily acknowledged misconduct,” the council said.
Camp wound up letting the accused man off scotfree — and even gave the man a word of advice.
“I want you to tell your friends, your male friends, that they have to be far more gentle with women,” he said. “And they have to be very careful. To protect themselves, they have to be very careful.”