JAN MOIR: Shame on the she-furies who always assume men are guilty of rape…
Arrested at dawn. Placed on police bail for nearly two months. The target of a feminist crusade to further blacken his name.
What now for Ben Sullivan, the President of the Union at Oxford who has been told he will not be charged with rape? Can he expect an apology from those who campaigned so virulently against him?
Don’t hold your breath.
The 21-year-old history and politics student was arrested in May on suspicion of rape and attempted rape; accusations made against him by two different women. As Sullivan was the head of the debating society, he was a patriarchal cherry on the cake; a very high-profile student in a prestigious university. He was shown no mercy.
Sarah Pine, President for Women at Oxford University Student Union, wasted no time in leading the witch hunt against him. . . .
Had it gone to trial, Ben Sullivan’s guilt or innocence would have been a matter for the courts to decide. And if found guilty, his punishment would have been a lengthy jail sentence. Yet all this happened before the CPS had decided whether or not to charge him.
This is part of a chilling trend in which, on U.S. university campuses, feminists have become self-appointed rape cops. If a male student is accused of a sexual assault on a female student, it has become alarmingly commonplace for it to be dealt with in-house, as opposed to by the police.
University officials consider the evidence, deal with the matter and mete out the punishments to the offenders.
The article notes that people are beginning to call for anonymity for those accused before conviction, and tougher punishments for false accusations, which appear to be distressingly frequent.