The victim told the court she believed she was going to die during the ordeal. Giving evidence behind a screen, she said: "It wasn't consensual... they have ruined my life."
I was in a domestic violence relationship where we were trying to become parents. We were doing IVF, trying adoption, and woven through all of that was a decade of domestic violence.
The suspect approached the 55-year-old woman and went on the attack, beating and then raping her. During the horrendous assault, cops said, the perpetrator kicked and punched the victim multiple times throughout her head and body.
Words such as 'relationship,' 'affair,' 'involvement,' or 'seeing each other' imply mutuality and consent. In the context of child sexual abuse, these implications are false. A child cannot legally or developmentally consent to sexual activity with an adult. Describing abuse using relational language risks distorting the inherent power imbalance and shifting perceived responsibility away from the adult perpetrator.