Hindustan Surkhiyan Desk: Women around the world are outraged and are showing their support on social media sites to a rape victim whose alleged perpetrator was acquitted in an Irish court after her thong was used as an evidence in a rape case. It is reported that in the Irish court, a defence lawyer had used an alleged rape victim’s choice of underwear to argue that the teenage girl had consented to sex. The 27-year-old man was found not guilty of raping the teen shortly afterwards. Many women on social media sites shared images of their underwear on Twitter and the hashtag #thisisnotconsent.
The Telegraph reported that Elizabeth O’Connell, the defence counsel, reportedly told jurors: “Does the evidence out-rule the possibility that she was attracted to the defendant and was open to meeting someone and being with someone? You have to look at the way she was dressed. She was wearing a thong with a lace front.”
The protest reached Ireland’s parliament, where Ruth Coppinger, a member of the Dail for Dublin West also produced a blue thong during a debate to protest the way the rape trial was conducted.
