Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Looking for faith in humanity

Attention ladies:

If you are raped, not only will a judge and jury claim it's your own fault, but you are never, ever allowed to smile again. EVER. Especially not on Facebook. So says a British lawyer. Link Here.

A barrister has caused outrage by suggesting a rape victim could not have been upset by her ordeal because there were photos of her on Facebook looking happy.

The woman was attacked in 2001 when she was 19 and has since tried to kill herself.

Her attacker, Anthony Francis, was caught seven years later as a result of a DNA sample.

His barrister tried to persuade a judge to be lenient by showing pictures posted on the social networking site of the woman laughing and smiling at a fancy dress party in the years since the rape.

Colin McCarraher, defending, told Reading Crown Court last week: 'What we have is a person who has post traumatic stress but is quite capable of going out and having a good time at a fancy dress party.'

Mr McCarraher told the court that although he did not know when the images had been taken, they did not tally entirely with someone struggling to rebuild their life.

The barrister's attempt to save his client from a lengthy prison sentence failed and Deputy Circuit Judge Stanley Spence jailed Francis for five-and-a-half years.


I do believe the term "Fuck you, Barrister Colin McCarraher, and your demeaning, lazy, inconsiderate and completely irrelevant argument, you shitty excuse for a lawyer" means the same thing across the pond as it does here in the States, yes?

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