@ Aaron Goodwin: does your mother know that you’re wasting time with this, when you told her that you’re doing your homework?

Those of us with clean consciences congratulate David on what he said. Those with guilty consciences are the ones tooting at the billboard.

“Actually if you look at it most women who make “fake claims” have been raped not necessarily by the person they accuse”

And exactly how many of these ‘fake claims’ have you reviewed in-depth to make such an authoritative claim, dozens? hundreds?

False complaints are a well documented, researched and established phenomenon, that also result in close to 300 convictions each year. Ask any criminologist or read any study.

In the CSI age we live in, juries are looking for physical evidence, ‘he said, she said’ cases don’t end well for any victim, particularly when the alleged offender appears respectable and credible in court. Jurors are hung up on DNA and have unrealistic expectations when it comes to forensic evidence.

The current justice system is based around the presumption of innocence and heavily weighted in the defendants favor across the board, not just in rape cases. The police have to disclose their full case against the accused prior to trial, this includes any rape victims full statement, this enables the defense and accused to manufacture a defense.

It is what it is, the police have to work with an imperfect system, while being under-resourced and having the specter false or malicious complaints that they also have to sort through.

word thanks Hamish, we need more discussion around consent…. so badly.

Well how do you prove someone raped you? It is merely about shifting the burden of proof.

And perhaps more peoples sexual experiences need to mirror my own and then less unwanted sexual encounters would fucking happen.

Love this bit-awesome pro-sex take on consent.

“..when I have sex with my partner we ‘check in’ a couple of times with each other during sex to make sure we are both ok – this does not interrupt sexual intercourse, it lets me know my partner cares about me and my sexual needs and boundaries. This is called sexual consent. When we first got together we had extensive conversations (also known as ‘mental foreplay’) about what we would like to do with each other sexually. This is called sexual consent. After a year and a half together we still ‘check in’ and make sure we are both comfortable with some of the sexual acts we are performing, even if we have performed these acts before. This is called sexual consent. These conversations also lead to more orgasms because we have become acutely aware of what gets each other off – conversation around consent can be sexy.”

True, the ‘proof’ of these conversations would be difficult, but I think a relationship where conversations like this happen, with this level of respect, a complaint is unlikely, surely?

I’m with Cunliffes comments 100%, and they don’t make me sexually insecure in the slightest. As a bloke I don’t like taking it on the chin in the slightest, but if you have to, well you have to. Those guys (and girls) who think they can dismiss the issue raised by Cunliffe on some crappy social media page need to “man” up.

Here’s an idea. Really revolutionary I know.

Ask them.

Every time.

Problem solved.