www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn3ddy2ekm4o
Military servicewoman says senior officer raped her
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People often don’t do those things straight after an assault because they are incredibly traumatised and often in denial about what happened. When there are gaps in memory because of alcohol that can be even worse and it can come back slowly.
She was asked she refused so there's no evidence other than he said/she said
A rape kit would have been of very little use in this case as the accused admitted that they had had sexual intercourse. The issue here is consent and capacity to consent. This is what people don’t understand. A rape kit can essentially only determine if sex happened. It does not provide any evidence on consent. Most accused rapists admit there was sex but say it was consensual.
The only other evidence that could have been collected is blood alcohol level and injuries. Most people don’t have injuries from rape. If they do, the rapist often says the victim wanted it rough. The alcohol issue can also be shown through eyewitnesses who saw the victim.
He said/she said is an often unhelpful description of these cases. There is often more evidence that brings weight to a victim’s testimony and compelling witness testimony can be enough for a prosecution and a conviction alone.
I mean based on the trend of how many accusations are made to then how many convictions are made surely it isn't enough? That's not accounting the 'hidden' figures where victims may never bother reporting an incident because they believe it'll be pointless in the long run.
It's difficult because I do believe that the majority of cases aren't false accusations but we just can't convict someone of a crime without real evidence. Sure everyone may think it's likely someone committed a crime but without evidence surely we can't convict them of it? Maybe in the future a better system can be made for rape/SA cases but as it stands I just struggle to see what can be done.
Harsher punishments for rapists which we can prove have committed the crime and better education to discourage this sort of behaviour may help but if we do fall into a 'he said/she said' situation I'm not sure what can be done as it stands.