Rape and late-night lifts
Desmond asked the Minister to clarify that accepting a lift late at night could not mitigate rape or imply that victims contributed to the crime. He agreed, while objecting to people knowingly writing false accounts; procedural exchanges concerned whether the House had moved on from the earlier question.
Accepting the Minister's statement here today, would he go further and make clear in addition to that statement that, no matter what the circumstances are, it does not in any way mitigate the crime of rape and that his statement does not in any way suggest that accepting a lift or a drive late at night is in any way contributing towards the crime?
Comment on this
By making the statement at all the Minister might be open to the charge of suggesting that the girls were in some way contributing to the crime themselves.