Protesters are storming the streets across Ireland after a rape suspect was acquitted during a trial in which his lawyer suggested the thong worn by the 17-year-old victim was a sign of consent.
In her closing address in Cork Central Criminal Court last week, defense attorney Elizabeth O’Connell told jurors they should consider the type of underwear the teen wore the night of the incident.
“Does the evidence outrule the possibility that she was attracted to the defendant and was open to meeting someone and being with someone?” O’Connell asked, according to the Irish Independent. “You have to look at the way she was dressed. She was wearing a thong with a lace front.”
The 27-year-old suspect was acquitted in a unanimous verdict.
About a week later, outrage erupted — even during a session of Irish Parliament, where Legislator Ruth Koppinger drew a thong from her sleeve.
“It might seem embarrassing to show a pair of thongs here … how do you think a rape victim or a woman feels at the incongruous setting of her underwear being shown in a court?” Koppinger said, according to the Guardian.
Fiona Ryan, who sits on the Cork City Council, told the paper that public outcry over the attorney’s comments took a few days to build — “but it festered.”
At a Dublin rally Wednesday, Tara Brown of the National Women’s Council of Ireland pushed for a change in the way the country handles such cases.
“We stand in solidarity with survivors of sexual assault who are being grievously failed by our criminal justice system,” she said, according to the Guardian. “The type of clothes a victim was wearing has no place in our criminal justice system, and it had no place in determining what is consent.”
“We have a responsibility to create a safe system for survivors of sexual assault, and we are repeatedly shown that we are a long way from achieving a victim-centered [prosecution] system.”
In Belfast on Thursday, protesters tied their underwear to placards, chanting, “My little black dress does not mean yes,” the outlet reported.
Meanwhile, Twitter erupted with the hashtags #IBelieveHer and #ThisIsNotConsent.
“Never have I felt so unsafe in my own country,” Suzanne Cooper wrote. “These archaic and sexist views of women are still prevalent. Where does it end? When you can prove even the handbag you carried wasn’t provocative?”
“Can we get a list of knickers we’re not allowed to wear if we don’t wanna be raped?” Twitter user Vonny posted. “I mean is it all thongs? Just frilly or lacey ones? Maybe shops selling them need to categorize better: ‘Rapey knickers’ v ‘Safe knickers.’ Victoria Secret needs to call this out at fashion shows.”
Noeline Blackwell of the Dublin Rape Crisis Center told the Guardian that rape trials often include details of the victim’s clothing.
“These kind of mythologies and stereotypes around rape come up again and again in court cases, because the defense to rape is that the sex was consensual,” she said. “So anything the defendant can do to suggest there was consent will be used.”
“Unfortunately, the response, particularly from younger women, is that if this happened to them, they wouldn’t report it,” Ryan added.
This cycle has to stop, Cerys Falvey of the feminist campaign group Rosa told the outlet.
“We have seen protests across Ireland saying this is no longer acceptable so what we need to do now is build a movement and fight back,” she said.
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