A recent High Court ruling highlights the dangers of victim-blaming, as a judge condemns a statement made in an appeal that suggests victims should escape their circumstances.
A 10-year prison sentence for a convicted rapist has been upheld by the Paarl Regional Court.
The court dismissed Barend Booysen's appeal, in which he claimed he was wrongly accused of rape because the complainant feared her aunts and grandmother would be angry for coming home late at night.
Booysen pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape.
In concluding her ruling, Western Cape High Court Acting Judge Phillipa Van Zyl said: “I should mention that, in his petition, the appellant raised as a ground of appeal that it ‘would have been expected of a victim to try and escape knowing what is about to happen for a second time’. This is a deplorable statement, and one that I hope not to see again in matters of this nature.”
