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Retired judge links low rates of rape convictions to “women getting too drunk to remember the facts” (27 August 2014)

Date: 27/08/2014
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Retired judge links low rates of rape convictions to “women getting too drunk to remember the facts”

A woman judge who has recently retired has caused controversy by saying convictions for rape will not improve until women stop getting too drunk to remember the details of what happened.

Judge Mary Jane Mowat, 66, said that juries sitting on rape trials are unable to convict if the evidence of a victim is unclear – or a victim admits they are unable to recall the details of what happened because they were drunk.

The Daily Mail reports that Judge Mowat said she was aware she would be “pilloried” for her views – and rape crisis campaigners have said that the victim-blame culture associated with rape is behind the low conviction rate in rape cases.

The manager of the Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre has said Judge Mowat’s comments are “dangerous and outrageous”.

Judge Mowat was educated at Oxford University and has served as a circuit judge in Reading and Oxford for the last 18 years, before she retired.

She said in an interview that, nationally, the conviction rate for rape offences after trial was just 60% – and attributes this to lack of corroborative evidence in rape trials.

In Oxford, Judge Mowat said the conviction rate for rape was just 24%.

“It is an inevitable fact of it being one person's word against another – and the burden of proof being that you have to be sure before you convict,” she said.
“I will also say – and I will be pilloried for saying so – but the rape conviction statistics will not improve until women stop getting so drunk.

“I'm not saying it's right to rape a drunken woman – I'm not saying for a moment that it's allowable to take advantage of a drunken woman.

“But a jury in a position where they've got a woman who says, ‘I was absolutely off my head, I can't really remember what I was doing, I can't remember what I said, I can't remember if I consented or not – but I know I wouldn't have done’: I mean, when a jury is faced with something like that – how are they supposed to react?” Judge Mowat added.

However, service manager at the Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre, Natalie Brook, said that rape convictions would improve when society stops blaming women for rape.
“Suggesting that rape conviction statistics will not improve until women stop getting so drunk is an outrageous, misguided and frankly dangerous statement to make,” Ms Brook said.
“Rape convictions will improve when those who perpetrate it – who are disproportionately male – stop raping; and when society stops blaming women for somehow being complicit in this act of violence.

“Rape is one hundred per cent the fault of the perpetrator – and suggesting otherwise serves only to feed myths that do nothing other than deter women from reporting this crime, or accessing the support they need.”

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