Fixed It: No, that is NOT what the trial was told

Newswire service AAP reported in an article sold on to several mainstream publications, on the opening of a 24 yo man’s trial for allegedly raping a 21 year old woman. The headline claims the court was told that “nightclub flirting led to rape”.

Quoting defence lawyers in headlines about rape trials is a common trope in victim blaming reporting, they almost never quote the prosecutor (as I did in my fix). This headline doesn’t even have victim blamey defence lawyer tactics as an excuse. The defence lawyer did not tell the court that anything led to a rape he denies ever happened.

The prosecutor outlined the crown’s case, which was described in the article, but the prosecutor did not open his case by blaming the victim. His job is to convince a jury to blame on the defendant, not the woman he allegedly chose to rape. 

Assuming both the defence barrister and the prosector are at least minimally functional in their jobs, neither of them would have told the court that flirting at a nightclub lead to a rape. Someone at AAP invented the narrative and put it in a headline that is not just revoltingly but is also factually incorrect.

It’s a failure of language, ethics and basic reading comprehension that would be disappointing in an average 12 year old. 

I very much hope AAP is not hiring 12 year olds to write their headlines. Australia has quite strict child labour laws that forbid that kind of thing. 

The trial is still going and the man is entitled to the presumption of innocence. Only the court can determine whether he is legally guilty or not guilty and any public commentary that could influence the outcome of the case (including comments on social media) could be grounds for a mistrial.