Ordering women into silence
Thank you, Jack Waterford, for publicising your contempt and rejection of the police and justice system in the ACT when it comes to protecting the privacy and dignity of women rape survivors.
Of course, it’s not just in the ACT that this happens but, in the male-dominated legal system generally. All the right words are used to suggest that everything is being done to help the victim but very little action is taken to prevent the perpetrator from verbally violating his victim over and over again in and outside of the court. In this, he uses his legal accomplices ruthlessly and without remorse.
When I studied law, the case that stood out for me was R v David Norman Johns (1993) where Justice Bollen said, ‘a measure of rougher than usual handling’ is acceptable behaviour by a husband seeking consent to sexual intercourse from his wife. In that case the husband had raped his wife several times before she reported him to police.
Public outcry resounded against Bollen’s comments. Other such cases followed. Women are still being brutally violated and their lives destroyed by police and court officers making a killing.
Why?