Reply #76: Wait till the jury come back. [View All]

[Donald Ian Rankin]

You, like about 70-80% of the posters I've seen on the subject, seem to be (it's not quite clear that you are - if you're not I apologise - but that's certainly the impression your post gave me) assuming that the woman is certainly telling the truth and her alleged attackers are certainly guilty.

Nearly all the remaining 20/30% of the posts I've read have been assuming that she's certainly lying, which I have even less sympathy for.

Virtually no-one has been saying what needs to be said, which is that we don't, and can't, know, and that it's none of our business. We don't have enough evidence, and even if we did our pontificating could only make things worse.

I agree that rape is never, in any circumstances justifiable. I think that cases of women making up allegations of rape are very rare indeed, but not completely unknown, and that *on the evidence publically available* we certainly can't be sure that this isn't one of them. I think that whether or not this woman was raped, publicising her case further will a) make it harder for her to go back to a normal life, and b) discourage other women from coming forwards with claims of rape: even supportive comments are worse than none, I suspect.

They will also further blacken the name of the accused; we *don't* know enough to be certain that they're guilty yet. I've seen lots of posts to the effect that this proves that they (or in some cases all/most men/sportsmen) are all animals; the time to draw that conclusion will be *after* they're convicted, *if* they are.

Until then, the least said about this sorry mess, the better for all concerned in it, I think.