During the trial the eastern European woman was made stand directly in front of the three accused and identify each one, a highly unusual practice.
However, heinous though her treatment was, in general how do you go about making a rape trial less of an ordeal?
It's a serious accusation with rightful life long implications for the accused if found guilty. However, given the severity of the implications, as with all crimes the case must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and as an accused you have the right to put forward a robust defence.
.....due to the severity of the crime and punishment, there has to be a robust process to prove guilt and I'm at a loss as to how to make the trial less of an ordeal without watering down the equally important rights of the accused.
Why has this story not been picked up by the media, why on earth was it not front page news.
Does the women not matter, just another foreign national of no consequence.
Bit like the Roma girl picked off the streets and gang raped by animals before being shot dead. And her parents who only last week travelled by bus to collect her poor wretched body.
Some people have a very perverse attitude to women.
Where is RTE and Newstalk and the Irish Times on this? I suppose septic tanks are more important, they cost money.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk : 'Terrified' gang rape claim woman arrested during trial'
This woman's experience of court proceedings are harrowing by themselves never mind the rape. Horrid stuff.
I would agree with this. She is accusing someone of a serious crime. The accused have as much right to a strong defence as the victim has to a strong prosecution case.
it really would make one seriously question if there is justice for women and whether the actual rape or the court treatment is worse. No sane mother, and parents of girls would ever be willing to bring a perpetrator to justice.
Forget about this case for a minute, and I don't know if you are a man or a woman .
but it would be some women who would be able to physically stand right in front of 3 men who had raped one, particuarly if one were in fear for whatever reason of what they might do outside court .
The alleged rape of the idiotic teenager is so far from this alleged case of rape I don't know why you linked it.
My point is about how law is enforced and applied, how the stastics for conviction never mind prosecution of rape in Irealnd are amongs the world's worst .
and it is no wonder that no sane women would dare go into court where all kinds of unnecessary information of a salubrious nature are brought into it, right down to what one wears.
We had a case not so long ago where in a women in her own home was raped by a stranger and he got a suspended sentence, what message does that send to women and to society and to rapists in particular.
Please don't get me wrong on men versus women. Men who are raped won't go to court for other reasons other those which apply to women, it's maybe even more shameful for them. And most of the clerical abuse was directed at boys.
if the accused is not up to appearing in court, they can give evidence by camera from a remote room and watch the proceedings from this room - they do not need to be in the same courtroom as the accussed.
I strongly suspect that the circumstances reported by the BT are not a true refection of what really happened. You have to remember that in Ireland, these cases are held 'in camera', so there are no members of the media or public allowed in the courtroom. Therefore the reporter was reliant on 2nd or 3rd hand accounts given by third parties whothemselves were not present, assuming the woman herself and her lawyers didnt talk to reporters (as they are forbidden under court rules for in camera cases).
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How do you know it was held 'in camera'? I thought very few cases are held that way and for very good reason. It is usually seen in family law cases. Not all rape cases are in camera although there might be reporting restrictions as far as I know.
Rape trials are held in public. Reporting restrictions may be in place on the media but the public are not excluded except for good reason.