**bleep** victim could have 'closed her legs', Lawyer tells Court

[grandmoon]

A young Wellington woman raped by a bouncer in an alleyway could have "closed her legs" if she didn't want sex, the man's lawyer told a jury.

Keith Jefferies was addressing the Wellington District Court in defence of George Jason Pule, who was found guilty of **bleep** the drunk 20-year-old after telling her he could help get her into a club to see her friends.

His comments were condemned after the verdict as "disgusting" and "disrespectful" by Wellington **bleep** Crisis manager Natalie Gousmett.

They come in the wake of the Roast Busters scandal, in which a group of young Auckland men boasted online of having sex with drunken girls as young as 13.

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Jefferies told the jury that the complainant and Pule, 34, a bouncer at The Establishment bar, had walked down Courtenay Place holding hands before having consensual sex in the early hours of October 22, 2011.

He claimed the woman made a false complaint to police six days later because she regretted the sex. There was no struggle or any threats, nor was there violence, Jefferies said in his closing arguments yesterday.

"All she would have had to do was to close her legs . . . it's as simple as that," he told the jury. "Why didn't she do that? . . . The reason she didn't do that was because the sex was consensual, as easy as that."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/**bleep**-victim-could-have-closed-her-legs-lawyer-tells-court-20131114-...

[izabsmiling]

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@am*3 wrote:
Didn't the lawyer say he doesn't personally think like that? He said it as part of the defence for his client?

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He shouldn't  legally be allowed to .

To suggest a rapist isn't a rapist  if the other person couldn't or didn't close their legs has no place in this day and age .

[cspotrunning]

they don't ................... they just get so off their heads that they dont have any judgement left ..................... that they go up an alley while wearing very little clothing.

aren't women smart enough to know what could happen to them?

i keep forgetting that my big words and sense of equality will keep my safe.

[the_great_she_elephant]

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@am*3 wrote:


Didn't the lawyer say he doesn't personally think like that? He said it as part of the defence for his client?

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"All she would have had to do was to close her legs . . . it's as simple as that," he told the jury. "Why didn't she do that? . . . The reason she didn't do that was because the sex was consensual, as easy as that."

Why did the lawyer use those particular words? Remember, it was part of his closing address to the jury. What impression are we to assume he was trying to plant in their minds?

[izabsmiling]

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@cspotrunning wrote:

they don't ................... they just get so off their heads that they dont have any judgement left ..................... that they go up an alley while wearing very little clothing.

aren't women smart enough to know what could happen to them?

i keep forgetting that my big words and sense of equality will keep my safe.

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it's still **bleep**.

??? edit:   bleep =  r ape 

[***super_nova***]

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@the_great_she_elephant wrote:

a lot of men are pigs and a lot of women are fools.

Being foolish is not a crime,   **bleep** a fool is, 

If you have a big win at the races, go into a pub to celebrate, shout for the whole bar then get blind drunk and pass out on the floor, does that make the gury who steals your wallet while you are unconscious less guilty of theft? "Please, Your Honour, he was drunk and flashing his money around - almost begging to be robbed."

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I really do not like this analogy.  Obviously nobody asks to be robbed, but if they put themselves in such a situation, and get robbed they are partially responsible, just like if you leave your house open and get robbed.  Nobody is arguing that the perpetrator is not guilty of a crime. 

However, Lets imagine somebody won big and got really legless, and somebody called him a cab and took him out to put him in the cab, and what if the drunk opens his wallet and gives him $1000, and later claims that he did not mean to give the money away, so the person should be charged with theft? 

Nobody is asking for being raped any more than they are asking for being robbed, but some women do go out and have casual sex.  If there are no witnesses, no obvious injuries, then it really is just her word against his, and it is up to the jury to listen and decide who is telling the truth.  In some cases it is a **bleep**, in other cases it might be that the woman expected a call, and when the bleep did not call, she decided to punish him.

[izabsmiling]

closing one's legs is easy when being raped  ...yeah right

The Lawyer is a Fool

[the_great_she_elephant]

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@cspotrunning wrote:

they don't ................... they just get so off their heads that they dont have any judgement left ..................... that they go up an alley while wearing very little clothing.

aren't women smart enough to know what could happen to them?

i keep forgetting that my big words and sense of equality will keep my safe.

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Never mind the big words, perhaps you should be specific about what you think they mean. Is it your opinion that if a woman who is drunk and has lost her sense of judgement walks down a dark alley with a man who r*pes her there - she has somehow  been complicit  his in his guilt.

[polksaladallie]

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@cspotrunning wrote:

protecting yourself is not putting yourself in harms way in the first place.

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While this is not necessarily about **bleep**, the number of young males who are assaulted far outnumbers females.  So do you advise that all males protect themselves in the same manner?   Wear ordinary clothes and be home by 9pm?

[***super_nova***]

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@izabsmiling wrote:

closing one's legs is easy when being raped  ...yeah right

The Lawyer is a Fool

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Yes, it was an unfortunate choice of words, but from what I understand about this particular case is that the man claimed it was NOT r ape, they had consensual s.e.x, and what the lawyer was saying that all what she had to do was to indicate she is not consenting and the s.e.x would not have taken place.

[freakiness]

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@cspotrunning wrote:

they don't ................... they just get so off their heads that they dont have any judgement left ..................... that they go up an alley while wearing very little clothing.

aren't women smart enough to know what could happen to them?

i keep forgetting that my big words and sense of equality will keep my safe.

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Most people that get raped are not off their heads, did not have on a mini skirt, do have good judgement and were not caught up a dark alley with very little clothing on.