this post was submitted on 15 May 2024
221 points (94.0% liked)

World News

39032 readers
2606 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Rebecca Joynes allegedly became pregnant after having sex with one of her victims, known as boy B, Manchester Crown Court heard - she denies the allegations against her.

Rebecca Joynes denies having sex with the two boys but admitted, in Manchester Crown Court, to having broken safeguarding rules by being in contact with them on Snapchat and having them back to her apartment in Salford Quays.

The 30-year-old was already suspended from her job and on bail for alleged sexual activity with boy A, 15, when she allegedly took the virginity of a second boy, known as boy B, 16, who she later became pregnant by.

Joynes denies that any sexual activity took place with boy A - whose semen was recovered from her bedsheets.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] cralder@lemmy.world 249 points 6 months ago (4 children)

Notice how it says "having sex with" instead of "raping" because she is a woman.

[–] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 64 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Yeah as fucked up as it is men cannot be raped by women according to the definition under UK law. That's what I read anyway someone please correct me though because I would love to be wrong here.

[–] thetreesaysbark@sh.itjust.works 21 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (4 children)

It's not the best source obviously, but according to Wikipedia this is incorrect, women can be charged with rape (if I've read this correctly):

Under section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, the use of the phrase "his penis" is a misnomer as all laws were previously written using male pronouns. It does not exclude those who are legally female from being able to be covered from the definition of rape.[12]

The last time I pasted a Wikipedia link on a world news community I was banned, so mods please just delete this comment if I've done something wrong. [Edit] note it was a different world news community, I'm just trying to be extra careful.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_English_law

[–] idiomaddict@feddit.de 23 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I honestly think that’s more about ensuring that they can charge trans women with rape (which they obviously should, when relevant). It seems like the thing they’re commenting on is the pronoun, not the noun.

Where I am, penetrating someone with an object counts and they phrase it very differently

[–] thetreesaysbark@sh.itjust.works 11 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

It does specify being the penatrator in a different section, I'm no lawmaker though so I'm not sure how the two statements converge.

You might be right about the trans argument.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 13 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The last time I pasted a Wikipedia link on a world news community I was banned

.ml? The mods there are really ban-happy, especially if you say something counter to tankie orthodoxy and back it up with unassailable logic and/or data lol

[–] thetreesaysbark@sh.itjust.works 7 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah that's the one. I hadn't noticed they were so ban-happy and I did enjoy getting some, definitely not all of them, different takes on world events.

What I really don't like is over policing though as it means you can unintentionally be stuck in a bubble.

Maybe there are stats on the number of bans a community has. That'd be interesting to have an idea of how much a community is policing.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Maybe there are stats on the number of bans a community has. That'd be interesting to have an idea of how much a community is policing.

It'd be up near the top for sure! Of the four times total I've been banned on Lemmy,

  • one was a legitimate one for breaking the "be excellent to each other" rule in !technology@lemmy.world by getting far too heated while arguing with a pro-cop person
  • one was a misunderstanding where making fun of Mitch McConnell got me banned from [!politics@lemmy.world(https://lemmy.world/m/politics) for "celebrating the death" of his sister in law
  • the other two was absolutely bullshit !worldnews@lemmy.ml bans for
  • supposed "sinophobia" (expressing unease about Chinese cops cooperating with Orban's fascist government in Hungary) and
  • "McCarthyism" for calmly and truthfully explaining that West Germany and later modern day Germany actually DID ever stop with the Nazism
[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I cannot officially speak on behalf of any other mods, but I can't imagine any of us deleting a Wikipedia link. Really, any mainstream source is acceptable. If you posted a link to something like womencantrapemen.co.uk, that might be a different issue.

[–] thetreesaysbark@sh.itjust.works 7 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Thanks. yes this was a different world news community. I wasn't saying it was this one that banned me, sorry if that wasn't clear.

I was just adding the disclaimer because I didn't want to get banned from this one too.

I've edited my original comment to try and make it more clear that I'm not referring to this community.

[–] David_Eight@lemmy.world 10 points 6 months ago (2 children)

IDK why people hate on Wikipedia links so much. Most wiki pages provide sources at the bottom of the page and are annotated, the [12] at the end.

[–] thetreesaysbark@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 months ago

This was the other world news community which is much more eastern based. I was questioning what somebody had said about a certain subject. Not saying they were wrong. Just asking if everything on the Wikipedia page was nonsense (I used stronger language which I won't make the same mistake of doing here).

For some reason this was justification for a ban. I guess I don't want to be part of a community which is policing itself so much as this will obviously lead to a scewed comment section.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 7 points 6 months ago

German law is curious (and well-written) in that regard. "rape" is something an offence may be called but it's not a category of offence in itself. There's one single section covering sexual assault in various aggravation stages:

StGB, Section 177:

(1) Whoever, against a person’s discernible will, performs sexual acts on that person or has that person perform sexual acts on them, or causes that person to perform or acquiesce to sexual acts being performed on or by a third person incurs a penalty of imprisonment for a term of between six months and five years.
[...]

(6) In especially serious cases, the penalty is imprisonment for a term of at least two years. An especially serious case typically occurs where

  1. the offender has sexual intercourse with the victim or has the victim have sexual intercourse or commits such similar sexual acts on the victim or has the victim commit them on them which are particularly degrading for the victim, especially if they involve penetration of the body (rape), or
  2. the offence is committed jointly by more than one person.

Note the "at least two years" doesn't inherit the "up to five years" of the previous section and there's even higher minimums for carrying weapons, risk of damage to health, etc.

Only acts involving penetration are considered rape but it doesn't say by who or what, and even if the e.g. forced face-sitting didn't involve penetration it's still going to be on the same aggravation level.


OTOH under German law what she did probably doesn't even begin to be rape it's sexual abuse of persons in one's charge.

[–] ChowJeeBai@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago

Can confirm. It's the same in my British former colony.

[–] JoBo@feddit.uk 8 points 6 months ago

Statutory rape does not exist as an offence in English law. The offence is sexual contact with a minor.

The age of consent is 16 but 18 if the older party is in a position of responsibility (like a teacher). So whether or not she had unlawful sexual contact with the second boy would depend on how that law was interpreted, as well as when the first contact took place.