Category Archives: Rape and sexual assault

Schoolboy who raped girl at Blue Mountains party to be held in youth detention for at least two months

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Magistrate says teenager ‘has shown no contrition’ but accepts his prospects for rehabilitation are ‘strong’

An unremorseful teenage boy who attacked and raped a fellow high school pupil at a house party in the Blue Mountains will be held in youth detention for at least two months.

The boy was initially involved in consensual activity with his victim before pushing further, sexually assaulting her six times and intentionally choking her over a two-hour period in the living room of a home west of Sydney.

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Muslim woman raped by Hindu mob shocked by release of 11 jailed men

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Gujarat frees men serving life sentences for rape, and for murder of three-year-old daughter and other relatives

A Muslim woman who was gang-raped by a Hindu mob, which also murdered her three-year-old daughter and 13 other members of her family, has spoken of her incredulity at the release of the 11 men jailed for the crimes.

The men were released on Monday by the Gujarat government after serving 14 years of their life sentences. Under Indian law, after 14 years some prisoners can be released on remission provided they fulfil certain criteria relating to their age and conduct.

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South African police arrest more than 120 after gang-rape of eight women

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Dozens of zama-zamas – illegal miners from other countries – now being held in crime crackdown following music video shoot attack

Dozens of men detained after the alleged gang-rape of eight women on a music video shoot in South Africa are expected back in court on Wednesday as police made more arrests of artisanal miners blamed by local people for widespread violence.

The arrests on Tuesday near Krugersdorp, a city north-west of Johannesburg, bring the total number of people detained since the attack to more than 120.

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Sexual assault case against director Paul Haggis dropped in Italy

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Judge in Lecce rules no grounds to pursue investigation against Canadian director, 69, who spent 16 days under house arrest

Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis has had a sexual assault charge dropped by an Italian court six weeks after he was accused by a 28-year-old British woman of forcing her to have “non-consensual” sex with him.

A judge in the southern Italian city of Lecce ruled on Friday that there were no grounds to further pursue an investigation.

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Blake Bailey, biographer accused of harassment and rape, to publish memoir

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Bailey’s book on Philip Roth was pulled after former students said he abused them

The author of a Philip Roth biography that was taken out of print by its original publisher last year after allegations that he raped multiple women and groomed his former middle school students for sexual encounters when they were older is gearing up to publish a book billing itself as a warning tale of so-called cancel culture.

Blake Bailey’s latest work is scheduled to be printed by the controversial Skyhorse Publishing, which picked up his Roth book and an earlier memoir after WW Norton took it out of print and pledged to donate money to sexual abuse organizations equaling the advance it had paid to the biographer.

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Labour pledges to fast-track rape and domestic violence cases through courts

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Boris Johnson’s ‘appalling’ attitude to women to blame for lack of progress on gender-based violence, suggests Keir Starmer

Rape and domestic violence cases will be fast-tracked through the courts under a Labour government so that no victim has to wait more than a year for justice, Keir Starmer has pledged.

In an interview with the Guardian, the Labour leader said Boris Johnson had made no progress tackling gender-based violence during his premiership because of his “appalling” attitude towards women.

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Man charged with rape of 10-year-old who had abortion after rightwing media called story ‘not true’

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Police say Ohio man confessed to raping a girl who went to Indiana for abortion, following the right’s attempts to discredit story

In a case that has become a flashpoint in the abortion debate after being highlighted by Joe Biden and baselessly disputed by some rightwing media and politicians, an Ohio man has been charged with raping a 10-year-old girl who later traveled to neighboring Indiana for an abortion.

Gerson Fuentes, 27, who was arrested on Tuesday, appeared in Franklin county, Ohio, municipal court for an arraignment on Wednesday. A police investigator testified at the hearing that Fuentes had confessed to raping the girl at least twice.

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‘Too ugly to be raped’: Queensland inquiry hears police were dismissive of domestic violence victims

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Officer gives evidence of colleagues describing rapes in intimate relationships as ‘surprise sex’, and saying they ‘deserved to be raped’

A Queensland police officer broke into tears as he told a commission of inquiry that he witnessed domestic violence victims being turned away and colleagues claiming some victims “deserved to be raped”.

The officer, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, gave evidence that he had heard colleagues make offensive remarks about victims who were raped in intimate relationships, claiming it was “surprise sex” or they “deserved to be raped”.

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Queensland commits to ban charging sexual assault victims without Medicare for examination

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Announcement follows Guardian Australia report on calls to end practice, victim’s $800 bill

Queensland Health has pledged not to charge sexual assault victims without access to Medicare for rape kits and will review its policies for other medical costs, after the findings of a comprehensive review.

The announcement comes after Guardian Australia reported on Thursday that one woman who was ineligible for Medicare was billed $800 for pathology testing this year after a sexual assault.

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Ghislaine Maxwell appeals against sex trafficking conviction

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The British socialite was sentenced to 20 years in prison last month

The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has officially appealed against her conviction and sentence in the United States for sex trafficking.

The 60-year-old was found guilty by a jury of luring young girls to massage rooms for the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein to molest between 1994 and 2004.

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Landmark report calls for affirmative consent laws in Queensland

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Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce’s final report includes call for campaign to dispel ‘rape myths’

A major review has called for Queensland to adopt affirmative consent laws among sweeping reforms to the handling of victims of sexual assault and violence in the state’s criminal justice system.

The long-awaited final report of the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce includes 188 recommendations to improve experiences with the justice system.

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Virginia lawsuits indicate pattern of schools ignoring reported sexual assaults

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Two lawsuits are back in front of federal judges, drawing scrutiny to schools’ failure to support students who report assaults


A pair of lawsuits that for years has plagued Virginia’s largest school system with allegations that it ignored students’ accusations of sex assaults are back in front of federal judges.

One of the lawsuits includes allegations of horrific abuse suffered by a student at a Fairfax county middle school and was the basis for a 2014 federal investigation.

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Thousands of victims of violent and sexual crime stuck in England and Wales court backlog

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Sevenfold rise in those waiting at least a year for cases to be heard as lawyers quit over cuts in legal aid

More than 5,800 victims of violent crime and sexual offences are stuck in one of the worst-ever backlogs in the crown courts, enduring delays of at least a year before their cases are heard, the Observer can reveal.

The number of cases facing these delays once a defendant has been charged has increased more than sevenfold in two years, according to an analysis of crown court figures in England and Wales.

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Female Labour MPs call on PM to scrap new rape victim guidance

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More than 100 MPs write to Boris Johnson saying guidance will lead survivors to avoid seeking therapy

More than 100 female Labour MPs have written to Boris Johnson calling on him to scrap new guidance on pre-trial therapy for rape victims, which they say will make it less likely they will get the vital therapy they need.

Led by the shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, MPs including Yvette Cooper, Angela Rayner and Jess Phillips argue that the new rules “will cause many survivors to avoid seeking therapy, and make it more likely that cases will collapse when the prolonged stress of waiting for trials becomes too much”.

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Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard convicted of violent rape

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While jury deliberated in Toronto, news broke that the Canadian rock musician had been charged with another sexual assault

  • This story contains descriptions of sexual assault

The Canadian rock musician Jacob Hoggard has been found guilty of violently raping a young woman, but acquitted of sexually assaulting a second – all while facing a new, third charge of sexual assault.

After a month-long trial and six days of deliberation, a Toronto jury handed down its verdict on Sunday evening in a court case that heard testimony from both victims recounting their alleged violent encounters with Hoggard, the former frontman of the Canadian rock band Hedley.

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‘Shocking’ rate of sexual abuse against aged care residents barely changed since royal commission

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Peak rights group for older Australians demands urgent change after 530 incidents of sexual abuse reported in last quarter of 2021

More than 500 cases of sexual abuse against aged care residents were reported in the last three months of 2021, a rate largely unchanged since the royal commission dubbed the prevalence of sexual crimes in residential care a “source of national shame”.

Experts say victims, many of whom live with dementia, are still being failed by systems not equipped to recognise or respond to crimes against those with serious cognitive impairment.

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Nepali woman’s account of rape prompts wave of protest over laws

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Calls grow for repeal of statute of limitations and widening of definition of rape after former model makes allegations on TikTok

A young woman’s account on TikTok of being drugged, raped and then blackmailed by a beauty pageant organiser when she was 16 years old has provoked outrage in Nepal and prompted calls to reform the country’s “grossly inadequate” rape laws.

In one of a series of videos, which together have been viewed millions of times, the former model and child actor broke down in tears as she talked about Nepal’s statute of limitations that dictates survivors must report cases of rape within one year of the offence being committed.

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Women in Canada’s military face greater harm from comrades than enemy, says judge

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Leadership ‘incapable of examining which aspects of its culture have been the most deficient,’ writes Louise Arbour in report

Some members of the Canadian military face greater harm from their comrades than from the enemy, according to a new report on sexual violence in the Canadian armed forces (CAF).

Called the Arbour report after its author, the former supreme court justice Louise Arbour, the 404-page document pinpoints the many failures of the CAF over the years to address misogyny, discrimination, sexual violence and trauma experienced predominantly by female members of the military.

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CPS guidance ‘makes things worse’ for rape survivors, victims’ commissioner says

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Vera Baird calls for therapy notes to be excluded from criminal trials, as they are in Australia

New guidance designed to give rape victims confidence to get therapy before their trial “makes things worse” for survivors and lessened their protections, according to the victims’ commissioner, Vera Baird.

The guidance issued by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) aims to “alleviate victim concerns that accessing counselling could damage the prosecution case,” but Baird echoed concerns from campaign groups that they, in fact, reduce protections and called for therapy notes to be excluded from criminal trials, as they are in Australia.

In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support for rape and sexual abuse on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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‘I will recover loudly so others don’t die quietly’: Queensland MP recounts horrific abuse

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Labor member for Macalister Melissa McMahon tells parliament of abuse she suffered, announces leave of absence

Queensland MP Melissa McMahon has divulged a harrowing childhood of sexual abuse as she announced a leave of absence from parliament.

On Thursday, the Labor member for Macalister, south of Brisbane, told parliament she would take time out to rebalance her life and family.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues in Australia is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732) and the crisis support service Lifeline, 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org

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