MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Just reading about Rylan Headley, 92 who has just been sentenced for a rape and murder in 1967.
Pretty grim and a very long time to wait for justice - https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jul/01/man-92-jailed-for-1967-rape-and-murder-of-louisa-dunne-in-bristol
But a little down the story I read this:-
In 1977, he raped two women, aged 79 and 84, in their homes in Ipswich. He was convicted and originally jailed for life, but at an appeal doctors told the court the rapes arose due to sexual frustration arising from his marriage to an “ambitious and demanding” wife. The sentence was reduced and he spent only about two years in jail.
Poor chap, terrible situation he found himself in. What else was he meant to do? He was almost the victim poor love. My memories of growing up were flares and spaghetti hoops and a bit rose tinted - turns out that whilst the world seem royally ****ed right now, we have made a little bit of progress here and there.
I had no idea his earlier sentence was so poor. Sadly there is nothing we can do for his past victims other than acknowledge it was totally unjust, and do our best to learn from the appalling state of the system back in those days, though regarding sexual violence, there is still a lot of learning to do.
I think it was only in the 1970s that they changed the law so a husband could be charged with raping his wife. Sounds medieval to my ears, but within my lifetime.
I think it was only in the 1970s that they changed the law so a husband could be charged with raping his wife. Sounds medieval to my ears, but within my lifetime.
errr. 1991 actually.
I think people forget that you are talking the 70's being 50 years ago. That is a long, long time in terms of social attitudes. From the perspective of the 70's: 50 years earlier capital & corporal punishment were still going strong.
It was also a time when they were locking up innocent people. I'd like to bet DNA work has led to the release of more innocent men than cold case perpetrators being caught.
I think it was only in the 1970s that they changed the law so a husband could be charged with raping his wife. Sounds medieval to my ears, but within my lifetime.
errr. 1991 actually.
I think people forget that you are talking the 70's being 50 years ago. That is a long, long time in terms of social attitudes. From the perspective of the 70's: 50 years earlier capital & corporal punishment were still going strong.
Yeah but the 1980s were only 20 years ago right? Right?
There was a time when "contributory negligence" was considered a thing in rape cases. Literally "she was asking for it dressed like that hitchhiking ".
There was a famous case in the early 1980s when John Allen a 33 year old businessman was convicted of raping a 17-year-old hitchhiker. He was fined £2,000 by Judge Bernard Richard, who alleged the victim's "contributory negligence".
Along with other similar cases it did cause outrage and legislation was introduced I believe to make prison sentence for rape mandatory. Contributory negligence can no longer be used in rape cases.
Absolutely shocking isn’t it, all within many us lifetime.
50 years ago. That is a long, long time in terms of social attitudes
I'm in two minds about this. For people on the more progressive side of society, then yes, but for society as a whole, I'm more inclined to think 50 years is nothing, a blip. Some just get left behind and forgotten about, others are determined, stubborn, and pig ignorant.
From the perspective of the 70's: 50 years earlier capital & corporal punishment were still going strong.
Capital punishment was on the wane and had been for some time. Public executions were abolished in the 1800s along with a bunch of other changes. The last hangings in the UK were in the mid 1960s, but capital punishment wasn't fully abolished for things like Treason and a handful of military-specific offences until as recently as 1998.
From the perspective of 1977, 45 years ago Parliament were raising the minimum age of the death penalty from 16 to 18 and talking about abolishing it completely when a little event you might have heard about called World War II happened and the whole thing got put on hold.
I had to look up corporal punishment. That's a bit harder to unpick.
"In the United Kingdom, the use of judicial corporal punishment declined during the first half of the twentieth century and it was abolished altogether in the Criminal Justice Act 1948.
...
However, it persisted in prisons as a punishment for prisoners committing serious assaults on prison staff (ordered by visiting justices) until it was abolished by section 65 of the Criminal Justice Act 1967. The last ever prison flogging happened in 1962."[source:Wikipedia]
So again, for the purposes of sentencing at least, it was on the wane.
Have you watched the new Adam Curtis documentary - Shifty - on iplayer?
It’s brilliant, if grim, but they show real footage from the early 80’s of 3 male police officers questioning a woman who was reporting being raped.
It’s absolutely horrendous! They treat her appallingly, basically saying she was asking for it. She certainly wasn’t acknowledged as a victim and was being bullied into dropping the whole thing and ‘putting it down to experience’
It’s no wonder most rapes don't even get reported.
Its incredible how recently attitudes have changed. When Only Fools and Horses (first broadcast in 1981) was re-released as a 'box set' on iplayer I watched the first couple of series. I was expecting casual racism but not the degree of misogyny. Bearing in mind this was primetime family viewing, there were multiple instances of calling women and girls slags and scrubbers for daring to have more than one sexual partner, joking references to underage sex and rape which were not ironic...actually the racism was toned down a bit which made me think that the sexism and misogyny was even worse - its a family show guys so keep the ethnic minority jokes down a bit but nobody even thought that a 40 year old chasing a 15 year old was a bit off so that was fair game etc
I think some of worse episodes have been removed now
It’s no wonder most rapes don't even get reported.
It's difficult to count things which aren't reported, but I looked at some stats on this a couple of years back and the ratio of successful convictions to offences is astonishingly low. The few which do get reported rarely end up in court, and the ones who do end up in court rarely secure a conviction.
I was talking to a younger (early 40s) colleague about attitudes changing over time, we discussed the fact that it was illegal to be gay in the uk until 1967. She absolutely 100% thought i was kidding her on.
mainly because nobody gives a shit these days if someone is gay.
so, I believe attitudes can change over relatively short timescales.
mainly because nobody gives a shit these days if someone is gay.
Plenty of people still do, unfortunately.
I'm in two minds about this. For people on the more progressive side of society, then yes, but for society as a whole, I'm more inclined to think 50 years is nothing, a blip. Some just get left behind and forgotten about, others are determined, stubborn, and pig ignorant.
Yep, I suspect a number of people change as they're exposed to new experiences.
But that still leaves those who refuse to change, and those who never have those experiences.
eah but the 1980s were only 20 years ago right? Right?
You want to know something even worse, Gen-X'ers getting annoyed that Charlie XCX and Oliva Rodrigo are unapologetically sounding like 90's Britpop.
90's Britpop is older now than the Beetles were when Oasis were re-hashing their songs.
"In the United Kingdom, the use of judicial corporal punishment declined during the first half of the twentieth century and it was abolished altogether in the Criminal Justice Act 1948.
"Birching" remained a legal punishment in the Isle of Man until 1993, although it was last used in 1976. They also didn't get rid of the death penalty until 1993 and the last person on the island to receive it (which wasn't carried out) was in 1992! In reality no one had been hanged there for ages, the death sentence was compulsory for murder but was always commuted.
You want to know something even worse,
The time gap from 1970 to now is more than the time gap from the end of WW1 to 1970.