Benjamin Mendy Not Guilty

[Big Malc]

7 hours ago, Plonk said:

I think if evidence is provided in court to disprove the allegation ( which it must have been for a not guilty result)

That absolutely is not how our legal system works.  A not guilty verdict isn’t proof that something didn’t happen, it’s lack of proof that it did.

[Big Malc]

12 minutes ago, Plonk said:

But I have also seen a lot of cases where the complainant or their witnesses have blatantly lied with no repercussions.

If someone is ‘blatantly lying’ in court they can be charged with perjury.  
 

What we are seeing here is allegations that have been kept under review, have passed the CPS code test and have been assessed as having a reasonable prospect of conviction.  Note that doesn’t mean a guarantee of conviction.

 

A jury is told they must be sure that the person accused has done what the prosecution says they have done.  If someone is not sure, it doesn’t follow that that is proof that the accused didn’t do it.

[scram]

some people really seem to struggle with the "beyond reasonable doubt" concept

 

It's also a bugbear in rape cases because invariable there are 2 witnesses - one is the victim and the other the defendant

 

And it comes down to how can a victim prove beyond reasonable doubt that they were raped

[Utah Owl]

On 20/07/2023 at 02:57, Big Malc said:

If someone is ‘blatantly lying’ in court they can be charged with perjury.  
 

What we are seeing here is allegations that have been kept under review, have passed the CPS code test and have been assessed as having a reasonable prospect of conviction.  Note that doesn’t mean a guarantee of conviction.

 

A jury is told they must be sure that the person accused has done what the prosecution says they have done.  If someone is not sure, it doesn’t follow that that is proof that the accused didn’t do it.

You need places like Russia or China for that!

[Mus]

That's because rape laws favour men.  From my brother in law who is a criminal lawyer.

[Waddle93]

8 hours ago, Mus said:

That's because rape laws favour men.  From my brother in law who is a criminal lawyer.

 

As in you have to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt?

[Hirstys_12th_Pint]

On 20/07/2023 at 10:06, scram said:

some people really seem to struggle with the "beyond reasonable doubt" concept

 

It's also a bugbear in rape cases because invariable there are 2 witnesses - one is the victim and the other the defendant

 

And it comes down to how can a victim prove beyond reasonable doubt that they were raped

 

I was on a jury a number of years ago for a case involving multiple defendants and offences.  One of them was for rape by one of the defendants.

 

Think there was in total about 40 offences across the defendants and all were proven guilty with the exception of the rape charge that we could not reach the required guilty votes.  A very very difficult one to decide on with the evidence that was available and certainly the beyond reasonable doubt came into play.

[Owl_For_a_Lifetime]

26 minutes ago, Hirstys_12th_Pint said:

 

I was on a jury a number of years ago for a case involving multiple defendants and offences.  One of them was for rape by one of the defendants.

 

Think there was in total about 40 offences across the defendants and all were proven guilty with the exception of the rape charge that we could not reach the required guilty votes.  A very very difficult one to decide on with the evidence that was available and certainly the beyond reasonable doubt came into play.

Similar here, was on a jury for a rape case, also had an element of he said / she said..

 

Only way we got the conviction was DNA evidence then changing of story that had holes in it. Even then they had to take majority verdict and not unanimous... 

 

So difficult to prove. The hardest cases are where both parties are pissed out of their minds... If there is no clear evidence one directly took advantage of the other how can an absolute verdict be reached..

[markowl]

On 28/07/2023 at 14:46, Mus said:

That's because rape laws favour men.  From my brother in law who is a criminal lawyer.

Wondered where that sentence was going before "criminal lawyer"

 

[Mus]

On 28/07/2023 at 23:42, Waddle93 said:

 

As in you have to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt?

 

No in that a woman has to prove he did it, rather than the man having to prove he didn't do it.  Though recent directives to police forces now have changed this around. 

[Waddle93]

2 hours ago, Mus said:

 

No in that a woman has to prove he did it, rather than the man having to prove he didn't do it.  Though recent directives to police forces now have changed this around. 

 

So same thing for any crime you have to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt

[Kopparberg]

City really had terrible luck with this signing 

 

£50m down the drain due to injuries and this situation 

 

But it’s only £50m to City so who cares really. 
 

I wonder if he’ll be injured again soon. Got a dodgy knee (?) and used to look quite bulky