The issue of " Consent " !

 Rape is probably the most unreported crime on our statute books, and the much reported but indecisive trial of two leading football, players is likely to deter many more women from lodging an official complaint.

Jarryd Haynes and Jack de Belin have faced a judge and jury in separate rape trials and in both cases the jury has been unable to reach a verdict.   Both juries were discharged and the parties involved face the cost and the publicity of these crimes  again being paraded in the public arena.  They will be tried again in front of new juries.

The statistics are not encouraging.  In 2019 the police recorded 4444 cases of alleged rape involving adult members of the public and thirty percent were taken to court for a decision within six months.  Data from the courts reveals that of the 1752 defendants charged with sexual assault between  July 2019 and June 2020, just 996 were convicted.

The conviction rate for rape cases stands at 56.8 percent and this compares with 75% for manslaughter cases and 80 % for drug dealing.  The odds against vindication are stacked unevenly against women who seek redress for rape and many decide not to have their humiliation dissected before court reporters and widely published in the national press.

The conviction rate improves sharply when the alleged rape is a brutal encounter between complete strangers and was clearly unprovoked,  The outcome is not so clear when it involves a couple who know each other and the jury hears very different versions of what happened from each of the parties involved.  Sex is a very private matter and there are usually no witnesses to vindicate the evidence given.

Often the decision revolves around the issue of consent.  The court hears a tittilating account of foreplay and the issue of consent or otherwise is far from clear.  That is often the issue that divides juries and the main reason why rape cases fail to reach a conclusive verdict. The various state jurisdictions have struggled to formulate a common legal definition of " consent " - and failed miserably.

To complicate matters, sex has evolved from the morals that existed a century ago to where it is becoming the usual outcome in most relationships.  Rape is a serious crime that is punished with a heavy penalty and it is becoming difficult to select a jury that does not contain a mix of people with very different  views on what sort of consent is applicable.

In the absence of a clearly defined consent definition to guide juries we will continue to have these cases return for further hearings and many women will decide not to take their complaint into a court of law.  In the case of rape our law system is clearly not dispensing justice according to the statue with a scale of balance in her hand that stands above each court house.