Notes on a trial

I've been following the trial, of course I have. Every chance I get I search google news (selecting sort by date so I know I haven't missed anything). Every night I listened to Morning Report and Checkpoint. The defence in rape trials (and often the prosecution) are depressingly revealing about our attitudes towards women, men, sex, rape and consent. So here are some thoughts about this trial.

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I've been continually disgusted by the defence, particularly Clint Rickards'. His lowest point as a person was his abusive cross-examination of the rape survivor. But the cynicism of calling an ex-All Black is pretty mind-boggling too. The ex-All Black was supposedly testifying that Clint Rickards was in a cast in 1983 and 1984, despite the fact that he couldn't remember when Clint Rickards was in a cast, and Clint Rickards' doctor testified as well.

I just hope the jury is smart enough to see through these nonsensical theatrics and understand that even friends of ex-All Blacks can rape people.

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The defence asked the woman involved why no one came when she screamed in a suburban neighbourhood. Because it's completely unheard of for a violent man to attack a woman within a suburban house and no-one to do anything about it.

The defence must have been reading the lego bible

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Clint Rickards was questioned about his work undercover and he said that he only lied 'to the criminal classes.'

There is actually a joke in there, but it's dependant on knowing the suppressed information. So I'll leave readers who know the information to construct their own joke.