London - Men accused of
murder should not be allowed to use rough sex as a legal
defence, women's rights advocates said on Friday, after the
killer of a British backpacker was jailed for life in a case
that drew fresh scrutiny on the issue.
Grace Millane, 22, was visiting New Zealand when she was
murdered. Her attacker pleaded not guilty to murder, saying she
died accidentally during consensual sex, but a jury rejected his
defence and convicted him in November.
Women's rights campaigners called for a ban on the "rough
sex" defence, saying the normalisation of violent sex in popular
culture meant men facing criminal charges for harming women were
increasingly claiming that the violence was consensual.
Research by the British campaign group We Can't Consent to
This found men avoided charges of murder in more than one in
three of 60 killings of women and girls where the defence was
used.
"These women are killed in extraordinary and sustained violence – Grace was strangled for between five and 10 minutes," said the group's founder Fiona Mackenzie.
"The normalisation of violence is leading to men using this defence and unfortunately it is often successful because people tend to believe that women consent to violence that seriously injures them."
This Saturday, December 01, 2018, CCTV image released by New Zealand Police shows 22-year-old English tourist Grace Millane in central Auckland, New Zealand. The image is the last known sighting of Millane, whose 22nd birthday was the next day. Picture: NZ Police via AP
Rough sex defences - in which it is claimed the victim died
accidentally during consensual sex - are overwhelmingly used in
cases in which the alleged attacker is a man and the victim a
woman, found a research paper by We Can't Consent to This.
Under British law, a person cannot consent to being
seriously hurt. But the defence offers a potential loophole by
arguing the death - often from strangling - was an accident.
Parliamentarian Harriet Harman, from the Labour opposition
party, has proposed amendments to a forthcoming bill on domestic
abuse that would prevent such claims being used as a defence.
"Men are now, literally, getting away with murder by using
the 'rough sex' defence," she told parliament last year.
Victoria Millane, the sister-in-law of murdered British backpacker Grace, reads a victim impact statement via video link during the sentencing hearing of the man found guilty of Millane's murder, at the Auckland High Court in Auckland, New Zealand. Picture: Dean Purcel/New Zealand Herald via AP
"Although the man has to admit that he caused injuries which
led to the woman's death, he claims that it was not his fault,
as it was a 'sex game gone wrong'. She, of course, is not there
to say otherwise."
More than 23,000 people have also signed an online petition
to parliament backing a change in the law to remove the defence.
Millane was strangled to death after going on a date with a
man she met on Tinder in the New Zealand city of Auckland during
a round-the-world trip.
Her 28-year-old killer, whose name has been suppressed by
the court, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of
17 years behind bars.