Jury in rape trial told not to engage in ‘victim blaming’

A judge has told the jury in the trial of three Dublin men accused of raping a woman in a car that they must not make moral judgments on the accused or engage in “victim blaming”.

The three men, who are now in their early 20s and who cannot be named for legal reasons, have pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to raping a woman at Bull Island, Dollymount, Dublin, on January 5th, 2016.

The defendants were all teenagers when, it is alleged, they drove the then 18-year-old woman to Dollymount strand, took turns in raping her before leaving her and driving away. The men say that they each had consensual sex with the woman.

One of the accused gave direct evidence during which he said he and “his gentleman friends” treated the complainant with “nothing but respect” on the night.

On day 26 of the trial Paul Greene SC, defending the third accused, said that “this is a sordid enough event, on a winter’s evening and three people having sex with [the complainant] one after another”.

“None of the three believed they had committed a crime and each of the three believed there was consent. And there was consent,” he said.

Condom

He asked jurors to consider if his client intended to rape the woman, why would he have used a condom or why would he have dumped it at the scene instead of “disposing of the evidence”.

In his charge Mr Justice Alex Owens told jurors they were not being asked to make moral judgments on the behaviour of anyone involved in the case.

He said it was not part of their function to engage in judgments of people who they found had bad sexual etiquette, or having fun at someone else’s expense.

“You are not asked to make moral judgments on caddish behaviour,” he said.

He describing as nonsense various “rape myths”, including an idea that woman regularly make up rape allegations for no reasons.

He said it also was not a defence to an allegation of rape that a woman was engaged in risky or promiscuous behaviour. He said this was known as “victim blaming” and told jurors they must not do it.

Fixed view

He said they must also not have a fixed view that “there is no smoke without fire”.

Mr Justice Owens said consent should not be equated with submission. He said a failure to offer resistance is not consent and it is not necessary to prove that a person shouted for help or tried to escape.

He said it is required to be established that the person alleged to have committed a rape knows the woman does not consent or has been reckless as to whether there was consent. He said a man who has a genuine belief, even if it is a misguided belief, that a woman is consenting is not guilty of rape.

Mr Justice Owens said he will complete his charge to the jury on Friday morning. The jury will then begin its deliberations.