Five men have been cleared of raping a woman after it emerged she had spoken online about group sex fantasies.
But was she raped?
The 24-year-old from Liverpool claimed she was raped after visiting one of the men at his home in Bolton, after making contact on the internet.But the trial at Preston Crown Court collapsed when computer evidence was produced showing her entertaining the prospect of group sex.
But was she raped?
Judge Robert Brown ordered the jury to return not guilty verdicts.
Why? Because she had group sex fantasies? I don't know the ins and outs of the case (sorry) but I know group sex fantasies aren't rape fantasies. Was she raped?
[Prosecutor Michael Leeming] formally offered no evidence after reading excerpts of MSN chatlogs of her conversations before the alleged offence.He said: "It is right to say that there is material in the chatlogs from the complainant, who is prepared to entertain ideas of group sex with strangers, where to use her words 'her morals go out of the window'."
Right, OK. Although that's not to say what other people's morals might be, out of the window or otherwise. It's not a case of matching morals here - rape is still immoral, even if the victim is too. So it still matters: was she raped?
The woman said she had agreed to visit Mr Owolabi after meeting him on MSN.She alleged she wanted to just have sex with him, but was then raped by the others.
Judge Brown told the jury: "This case depended on the complainant's credibility.
"Not to put too fine a point on it, her credibility was shot to pieces."
Fine. Credibility is important in an accusation. But what about evidence? The prosecutor decided "it would not be appropriate to offer any evidence" after the revelation of his client's desire for group sex.
The law of innocent until proven guilty means the right decision has been made in light of evidence not being presented. But if the only reason it was not presented was because the prosecutor knew his client had slim chance of winning the case due to her reputation being in doubt, this is deeply worrying. I just hope he knows something we don't (i.e. that the alleged victim is lying); otherwise, a victim's quest for justice has failed purely because of incredibly flimsy non-evidence.
Because it doesn't matter if she'd entertained group sex fantasies or even rape fantasies before the alleged incident. All that matters is -
Was she raped?