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I still can't believe it happened but my husband has been convicted of rape.
There was no suggestion of violence, they had been out with a group of mutual friends drinking. She recognised that while they were having sex she never said 'no' or 'stop', she never said that he pinned her down or anything like that, but she said that she was too drunk to consent and that she had a patchy memory of what happened. I will never believe he is guilty and I can't believe he was convicted. Of course, I was angry when he told me he cheated on me (he was drunk at the time too) but I decided to forgive him.
I have obtained advice from a number of law firms who have all said that it is unlikely that an appeal will be successful. What it comes down to is that the jury believed her, that she was really drunk, rather than believing him, and that is just not appealable. Mistakes/negligence by the defence team are apparently also not sufficient for an appeal.
He has been assessed for SOTP but is classed as a denier and so can't do the course. It's hard to get much information on the post conviction stage. I'm worried that if he is still classed as a denier then when he is eventually released on licence he won't be able to do the external SOTP course and so he will automatically breach his licence and will go back to prison. Him being on licence is still a couple of years in the future but I can't help but worry about it now. I want to know the date to countdown to, without fear that he will be released and almost immediately returned for a breach. Does anyone else have any experience of this?
There was no suggestion of violence, they had been out with a group of mutual friends drinking. She recognised that while they were having sex she never said 'no' or 'stop', she never said that he pinned her down or anything like that, but she said that she was too drunk to consent and that she had a patchy memory of what happened. I will never believe he is guilty and I can't believe he was convicted. Of course, I was angry when he told me he cheated on me (he was drunk at the time too) but I decided to forgive him.
I have obtained advice from a number of law firms who have all said that it is unlikely that an appeal will be successful. What it comes down to is that the jury believed her, that she was really drunk, rather than believing him, and that is just not appealable. Mistakes/negligence by the defence team are apparently also not sufficient for an appeal.
He has been assessed for SOTP but is classed as a denier and so can't do the course. It's hard to get much information on the post conviction stage. I'm worried that if he is still classed as a denier then when he is eventually released on licence he won't be able to do the external SOTP course and so he will automatically breach his licence and will go back to prison. Him being on licence is still a couple of years in the future but I can't help but worry about it now. I want to know the date to countdown to, without fear that he will be released and almost immediately returned for a breach. Does anyone else have any experience of this?
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