#ThisIsNotConsent Protest in Ireland to support rape victim whose underwear was shown in court 

NP NEWS 24 ONLINE – Rapists cause rape. Not what a woman has had to drink, how she behaves or what she happens to be wearing, and that includes what she is wearing underneath her clothes. But just this week – in post-#MeToo 2018 – the type of underwear worn by a girl who accused a man of rape was considered relevant in an Irish courthouse.

On Wednesday, a 27-year-old man was found not guilty of raping a 17-year-old girl in County Cork, Ireland, after his defense barrister urged jurors to reflect on the underwear the girl had been wearing on the night, the Irish Examiner reported. The jury of eight men and four women reached their unanimous verdict after an hour-and-a-half of deliberation.

Protests across Ireland were held on Wednesday against what activists say is recurring victim-blaming in rape cases, after a woman’s lace thong was controversially cited as evidence against a 17-year-old alleged victim.

The Cork trial first grabbed the headlines on November 6 when a 27-year-old was acquitted of raping a 17-year-old. The defense counsel, Elizabeth O’Connell, stirred widespread outcry when she said about the teenage girl: “You have to look at the way she was dressed. She was wearing a thong with a lace front.”

It prompted a mass movement on Twitter where people posted pictures of their underpants with the hashtag #ThisIsNotConsent.

Irish MP Ruth Coppinger also hit out at the evidence produced by the barrister by holding up a lacy thong in parliament in a bid to emphasize what she branded the “routine victim-blaming” in rape prosecutions.

Pulling a blue thong from her sleeve while in parliament on Tuesday, she said: “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?”