#ThisIsNotConsent: Know how an outrageous act of a Rape Defense Lawyer in Court ignited it

November 18, 2018:

The Barrister actually told a jury to ‘look at the way she was dressed’, that she was ‘open to meeting someone.’

Wide protests have flared across Ireland this week triggering a viral campaign online after a defence lawyer showed a 17-year-old girl’s thong or G-string in court as alleged proof of her consent in a rape case.

The current outrage has included a female lawmaker brandishing underwear in parliament & women posting pictures of their thongs online with the hashtag #ThisIsNotConsent.

“It might seem embarrassing to show a pair of thongs in this incongruous setting,” said member of parliament Ruth Coppinger -- pulling the underwear from her sleeve against the objections of the speaker on Tuesday.

“But the reason I’m doing it -- how do you think a rape victim or a woman feels at the incongruous setting of her underwear being shown in a court?”

She was referring to a rape case in the republic’s southern city of Cork, where a girl’s underwear was shown to jurors.

The 27-year-old defendant was acquitted, Irish media reported.

“A barrister actually told a jury to ‘look at the way she was dressed’, that she was ‘open to meeting someone’ because she was ‘wearing a thong with a laced front’“, Coppinger added.

“Women in this country are getting a little bit weary at the routine victim-blaming going on in Irish courts.”

Protests have now taken place in the cities of Dublin & Cork as well as Belfast in Northern Ireland -- with women appearing brandishing pairs of underwear & placards emblazoned with the phrase “This is not consent.”

Protesters are calling for a reform in Irish rape prosecution laws to deny the defence practice which they say reflects a culture of victim-blaming.

“Bringing rape myths into a sexual violence case is to bring misogyny into a sexual violence case,” Clíona Saidléar of Rape Crisis Network Ireland told AFP on Friday.

She said culture places “enormous pressure” on women & girls “to be sexualised & to present sexually” -- but that rape trials then often punish that same behaviour with the use of such “evidence”.

Clothing, as well as fake tan & contraception, have all been used as alleged proof of consent in recent rape trials, Coppinger said Tuesday.

These latest protests follow demonstrations in Ireland & Northern Ireland after the so-called “Belfast rugby rape trial” -- when Ireland players Paddy Jackson & Stuart Olding were acquitted of raping a woman in 2016.

More than 4,000 protesters gathered in Dublin after the pair walked free in March. Source Link