Drunk women can’t cry rape

Women have been warned that binge drinking could cost them the right to complain of being raped.
   “Drunken consent is still consent,” a jury was told as the prosecution abandoned a rape trial involving a drama student and a security guard.
   The guard, a complete stranger, had sex with the 21-year-old woman while she was lying unconscious in a corridor outside her flat in a university hall of residence.
   She was adamant she had not consented, telling Swansea Crown Court: “If I had wanted to sleep with him I would have taken the few steps to my bedroom.”
   But because she had lost consciousness and could not even remember having intercourse, prosecutor Huw Rees said the case against 20-year-old Ryairi Dougal had to be halted. The judge, Justice Roderick Evans, said he agreed with the prosecution and instructed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty “even if you don’t agree.”
   The woman, 21, had said she drank “small vodkas” and a glass of wine while getting ready for a party at the arts centre of Aberystwyth University, in west Wales.
   After posing for photographs with fellow students and lecturers on the steps outside the centre she went to the top floor and the party.
   After just one glass of wine she began to feel unwell and headed for the toilets, where she slipped over. By now she felt “more drunk than ever before in my life.”
   She told the jury: “My dress was in a state and I wanted to leave. I went onto a patio for some fresh air. I was losing focus and very dizzy.” A female member of staff said she would find someone to walk her the short distance home and came back with Dougal, also a student who was working that night as a guard.
   The pair walked to her block of flats. She said she could not remember climbing the stairs, but could recall fumbling for her keys outside the door to her bedsit.
   There was little dispute about what happened next. Dougal, from County Donegal, Northern Ireland, had sexual intercourse with her in the corridor.
   The woman said she had passed out but came round briefly to be aware that “something was happening but I didn’t know what.” She lost consciousness again.
   Later, after Dougal had left, she went to sleep on top of books left on her bed. Dally Mail, London

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