Who was the barrister who suggested a 13 year old rape victim 'enjoyed' it?



Who was the defence barrister who suggested a 13 year old girl who was raped, abused, tortured and prostituted by an evil Oxford gang had ‘enjoyed herself’ during sex?

Those poor kids had already been put through a living hell and now they were branded liars by the gang’s barristers.  One of the gang’s barrister suggested they were ‘naughty girls doing grown-up things’.

The court humiliation was such a traumatic experience that one young victim, now on anti-depressants, said she would not go through it again and would advise other victims of sexual abuse not to do so either.

"The defence lawyer set out to destroy and humiliate me in court," she said. "The judge had to adjourn the hearing five times to make him stop various lines of questioning because they were so aggressive and awful.

"I understand they have to question me but that defence lawyer tried to destroy me. I almost gave up a number of times and walked away.

"In the end, I stuck it out but I was traumatised by the experience. I'm on antidepressants now as a result," she said.

There HAS to be a better way than unleashing the full force of our adversarial justice system on defenceless little girls.  Let’s have a system, for these kinds of cases at least, where everyone is just after the truth – more like the French system.  Rather than a theatrical combat, with no holds barred that aims to destroy the innocent.

What do you think?

independent.co.uk

guardian.co.uk/uk

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