How Much is Rape Worth?

2008 January 30
tags: , , , , , ,
by steph

In a landmark ruling Law Lords overturned a Court of Appeal judgement and ruled that the applicants in the five cases shouldn’t be statutorily barred from suing the defendants for their sexual assaults because they failed to make their application within the six year period of limitations, that the presiding judges may use their discretion in deciding whether or not to apply the Limitation Acts.

Iorworth Hoare was jailed for life in May 1989 for the attempted rape of Mrs A. He served sixteen years and then won £7m on the National Lottery. Mrs A will now be allowed to sue him, despite not having done so within the time limit. Her case is different from the others, she could have sued Hoare but didn’t because he wasn’t worth anything in 1989. The only reason she is suing him now is that he has £7 million to his name.

Morally she deserves the money far more than he does, but if the judge were to allow her to proceed with her application, it will be a travesty of justice. The purpose of statue of limitations is to provide the applicant reasonable time to pursue a case, not to wait until the defendant is rich enough to pursue, that is perverse. But then so is the entire English legal system. Rape is serious crime, not a civil wrong: rape victims shouldn’t have to sue their rapists for compensation.

Victim Support made a very valid point,”It’s very good news for her but the wider significance is questionable because the vast majority of offenders don’t have assets to chase.” The sanest way to address rape compensation is to have a codified system and for the sentencing judge to determine the compensation award.

There are other moral implications of pursuing rape cases in civil court. Civil cases can be brought instead of criminal cases and can be settled without any admission of liability by the rapist. The rapist can in effect pay his victim for sex retrospectively, walk away and do it again. Rapists belong in jail and rape victims should be compensated according to the crime, not according to the size of the rapists wallet.  

from → politics

29 Responses
  1. 2008 February 13
    Custodes permalink

    Iorworth Hoare was jailed for life in May 1989 for the attempted rape of Mrs A. He served sixteen years and then won £7m on the National Lottery.

    It seems to me that he has served his penance to society. He lost 16 years of his life, he most likely lost all of his friends as well as being separated from his family and stopped from having a marriage and children of his own. And if prisons in the UK are anything like they are in in other countries he was probably raped, more than once. After his time in prison he will always be known as “That rapist”.

    Yes, rape, is a sad thing in this world. However he has paid his debt to society, he has lost the life he could have had, the family he could have had.

    She knows that justice has been served. Him getting a windfall of cash from his lottery winnings doesn’t change that.

  2. 2008 February 10
    rob permalink

    fankoo – bottle of perfoom girl? ;)

    Juicy couture going cheap…

  3. 2008 February 10
    steph permalink

    @ rob

    Well said. I can put my point across and make a persuasive, well reasoned argument without being snide, childish or generally unpleasant, so I don’t respect those who are.

    Your comments are always welcome, I have no objection at all to you linking to the http://www.perfume-gifts.co.uk/

  4. 2008 February 9
    rob permalink

    bittergirl…tut tut tut

    Thanks for your snidey little shitty remark casting aspersions on my character and motives for posting here. :)

    FYI, wordpress sub domains use cookies which are carried from one wordpress subdomain to another.

    Here’s how it works, you comment on one place like name.wordpress.com and put in a sig link. You then go to another and comment there, guess what? Yes, the software reads the cookie on your puter and populates the boxes! Cool huh?

    The fact that I happen to run a couple of of blogs and comment at a variety of different blogs on all manner of topics using a sig that on this pc just so happens to link to a perfume type blog, just so you are clear on this, doesn’t make it spam.

    In fact if I were a spammer I’d do things like target dofollow blogs and use anchor text that was beneficial to the marketplace of whatever I was promoting. The fact that wordpress sub domains use rel=nofollow tags as a standard is one of the reasons why many spammers choose not to target these blogs.

    I could of course remark on your very own sig link and level the very same accusation at yourself and accuse you of poisoning the blogosphere with your blackhearted shit but i won’t because I’m better than that see oops shit I just did, usually I don’t get off on being snidey and shitty , nor do I accuse people of things I know absolutely nothing about, but for you I’ll make a rare exception.

    See, I realised some time back girl, that life is very short and you need to grab hold of it and make the very best of it all. Maybe one day you’ll wake up and quit writing that black hearted attack mentality stuff of yours. Trust me you’ll feel so much lighter for it darling. Until such a time, do remember that at worst you only have to stick around for 100 years max , but please while you are here, try and do everyone else a favour and be nice, it costs the same as being mean you know.

    Anyhow, Steph, on the back of what miss sweetness and light had to say, if you feel like deleting this comment or the links in my sig do feel free.

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