Chief prosecutor surrenders

Interestingly, Sally Dowling's response to Judge Whitford's comments claims that the fact that sexual assault conviction rates haven't gone down undermines judges' assertions that the DPP is pushing through unmeritorious cases. The DPP is arguing that if the cases are so feeble, more would have failed and the conviction rate would have fallen.

This is a disingenuous argument, as it ignores the fact that for decades feminist lawmakers have been changing the rules to make convictions easier to obtain; undermining the accused's traditional legal protections in order to nail more men. For example, the introduction of draconian requirements for affirmative consent and restricted cross-examination, measures to make it harder to include exculpatory evidence from mobile phones, and deny juries relevant evidence of a complainant's sexual history, including previous false allegations.

Juries everywhere are being bullied by ideologues arguing they should always believe the victim. It's actually a miracle that the conviction rate isn't higher than it is, given the efforts the feminists have made to stack the deck.

The unchanged conviction rate actually shows just how pathetic many of the cases really are because, despite the feminists' best efforts, many are still failing in court.

And even though the proportion of accused men being convicted remains much the same, increasing numbers of sexual assault cases are being decided in our courts which means far more men being sent to prison. Sexual assault offences reported to police increased 30% in the last five years. See this graph of reported sexual assault offences since 2019 - note the Brittany Higgins Wannabees spike in early 2021!

Moreover, it appears that most of these allegations end up going to trial. The Australian quoted an anonymous staff member of the ODPP saying "at a guess, at least 80 per cent of cases proceed even if there are issues with the complainant's credibility."

The bottom line is if the rules are changed to make it easier to get a conviction but the conviction rate does not increase, the percentage of meritless cases going to trial must have increased. Compounding this is a significant increase in the overall number of sexual assault cases going to trial.

Last month I wrote about the stoush late last year between the DPP, Sally Dowling, and District Court Judge Robert Newlinds. He too claimed her office was taking a "lazy and perhaps politically expedient" approach to rape cases by putting hopeless cases before the court – and Dowling responded by making a complaint about his comments to the Judicial Commission.

The facts of the Martinez case that prompted Newlinds' dummy spit are just astonishing. This complainant has nine times got totally pissed and had sex with separate men, only to turn around and report them for sexual assault, claiming she'd been too drunk to give consent. All these cases ended up with the men facing a sexual assault charge, although three took a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to lesser offences.

Six of these men are mentioned in the Newlinds' decision to award costs to Martinez. Three additional men this woman had similarly accused avoided facing a rape trial by pleading guilty to lesser offenses, according to a fascinating podcast called The Wigs, made by a group of NSW barristers. Do listen to it if you enjoy a deep dive into these legal complexities. The latest episode discusses many aspects of the controversy over this case, including the fact that the Crown misinterpreted the law by claiming the woman's intoxication meant she wasn't capable of consent. Serious intoxication is simply one factor the jury can take into account – it doesn't negate consent. (Pity that the consent courses in our schools are giving the opposite impression.)