So, having escaped conviction for rape and sexual assault essentially because of reasonable doubt (in that the jury couldn't be sure that the drunk woman he raped and sodomised hadn't "consented" and then forgotten about it), former league player Tea Ropati is now planning to turn around and prosecute his accuser for cocaine use - something the police (quite rightly IMHO) don't give a damn about. This isn't the only case where a powerful man has taken revenge on a woman who has dared complain about being raped through private prosecution - crooked cop John Dewar is currently engaged in a similar effort against Louise Nicholas - and the concern is that it will deter other woman from making complaints in future. But as In A Strange Land points out, that's exactly the point. The clear message from these cases is "if you dare to hold us accountable, we will break you". It speaks of a mindset from the powerful and the privileged that they ought to be able to abuse and oppress and even rape with impunity the "little people" beneath them.
Unfortunately, there's little we can do to prevent this abuse - we can't stop people from bringing court cases (well, we can, but the bar to having someone declared a vexatious litigant is so high that even Graham McCready hasn't passed it yet). All we can do is voice our disapproval, and make it clear that the abusers will not gain the rehabilitation they seek. What Ropati is doing is utterly despicable, the actions of a vindictive bullying thug. But then, I'd expect nothing less from a sexual predator who preys on drunk women.
