The court has heard that RH’s former girlfriend is “a woman scorned” whose claims of rape are unreliable for nine reasons including her mental illness. Boucart SC for RH asked the court to acquit hm of the latest allegations, saying the alleged victim’s evidence could not be believed for “nine reasons”:
HER “significant and longstanding” mental illness which, he claimed, could include symptoms of “irrationality, paranoia and hallucinations”;
LIES she had told during her evidence, including a denial she had exposed herself to the man via webcam;
HER attempt to “drastically play down” the severity of her mental illness;
A HIATUS of several days between the alleged rape and her return to her interstate home, during which another person could have attacked her;
DIFFERENCES between her account and those of witnesses in whom she confided about the alleged rape;
HER reluctance to show her purported bruises to her doctor;
HER reluctance to involve the police, indicating she “is somebody who wants sympathy but not the scrutiny of the authorities”;
HER “incredibly histrionic” evidence in the trial, including her decision to “hold the Bible aloft when she wanted to stress things”; and
HER bitterness over the end of the former couple’s relationship.
Boucaut said “She is a woman scorned ... I don’t want to be melodramatic about it. She is most certainly a woman scorned and rejected by the love of her life — not only scorned, but embarrassed.”
Pearce QC refuted these assertions. “There is no suggestion that she has been vindictive, and just because someone is upset does not mean they are psychotic or lying about what happened to them,” he said.
Boucaut said the charges should be dismissed, claiming the woman and her friends had “jumped on the bandwagon” of the Salt Creek “media frenzy”. “She told police, ‘I saw some footage on the news ... straight away I recognised (the man), he had the same T-shirt on that I had got him for Christmas’,” he said.
Pearce QC urged the court to accept the woman’s evidence as proof, beyond reasonable doubt, that she had been raped and said it was supported by the DNA match found on the satin cord as well as her bruises, which the woman herself had photographed.
Justice Trish Kelly remanded the man in custody and will hand down her verdict on a date to be set.
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/...n/news-story/a230a1dbdec5c2d16c253d989480fa79
Another trial bites the dust. Next ...