Labour and Rape

[nikaiyo2]

The main item on PM tonight was Bex Bailey and her allegations of rape.

Now I get why one might complain to the Labour Party about inappropriate behaviour at an event. An unwanted touch or inappropriate text I can see why you would consider it an HR matter and seek an internal solution.

Is rape not on another level? Is it not clearly a criminal matter, that should be dealt with by the police?

I can get wanting to protect the party but surely this is a new level of closing ranks. It’s rape FFS.

[nikaiyo2]

Derek Smith said:

The police don't need the cooperation of a victim to pursue a suspected rape. However, it is difficult to prosecute without the cooperation of the victim. A year or so ago the CPS stated that if a rape victim did refuse to cooperate, they could be imprisoned. A few years ago a victim did refuse in court to testify and the judge threatened to imprison the victim for contempt.

I feel that one should not force a victim to give evidence of the crime, but there is the thought that if an offender gets away with such a serious crime once, they will go on to offend again.

I can't blame a victim for not wanting to proceed. Complain you've been burgled and everyone sympathises and tutts. Say you've been raped and there are those who want to treat such a report differently to any other crime and refuse to believe them. This despite the number of false burglaries easily exceeding the number of false reports of rape. On top of that, there's the invasive investigative procedures. They are bad enough, especially as they are normally immediately after the offence, but they are nothing compared to the legal procedures.

I think the imperative for the victim is to their own health. The pressure of being a victim of rape is tremendous. I see no reason for this woman to be forced to report the rape.

However, how do we know she has not reported it already to the police? We don't. If this happened in a situation where she and the bloke were alone then there's every chance that the CPS would not run it.

The number of rapes reported are a small percentage of those that occur.

Sorry I forgot about this lol

I was certainly not trying to blame the victim, but cant quite get my head around how a seemingly smart educated woman would think that reporting a rape to the party before the police was the correct thing to do.

I take your point about not knowing if it was reported to the police, but would that not have been mentioned, that it had been reported and no action taken or reported and he is "in the system."

I dont know it just seems weird.