When you or a family member are accused of a sexual act, it can be a blow to your life. You may worry about your job, your family, your children and of course, how the community sees you.
But don’t panic! There are people can help you and at ABV Solicitors, we aim to be at the forefront of sexual offence defence.
At ABV Solicitors, we know all too well how devastating an accusation of sexual assault can be and our sexual offence solicitor will work hard to defend you and help reach a resolution that you and your family are happy with.
In this article, our sexual offence solicitor highlights some of the legal sexual assault defences which are used in court, helping you to understand this emotive area of the law in a bit more depth.
Did it happen?
This is by far one of the most common defences that our sexual offence solicitor uses; did the events as stated by the person who made the accusation actually happen?
In our experience, there are a lot of difficulties when it comes to proving sexual contact or sexual assault and the burden lies with the prosecution to prove that the events happened exactly as stated.
We will use objectively obtained evidence (if there is any) to prove that you are not guilty of the offence of which you are accused.
Consent
When it comes to sexual assault or rape cases, issues surrounding consent are often used by our team.
In many cases of false accusations, the accuser may state that they did not give consent for the activity to occur, simply because they regret the activity happened. So, once again, this can present a thorny legal issue concerning the burden of proof. But our team will work hard to ensure that if the consent was given at the start of the sexual act (or before via text messages or email), this is shown on your behalf.
Capacity
Capacity relates to whether someone has the mental state required to give consent relating to sexual acts; for instance, if someone with the mental age of 11 gives consent to a sexual act but they are physically an adult, they cannot give consent.
However, if at the time of the assault, you as the defendant could not understand what you were doing (due to mental illness for instance), we will use this when defending your case.
Intoxication
You may have heard the old idea that being inebriated excuses unwanted sexual acts; it does not, and no court will throw a case out based on the accuser being drunk or intoxicated either.
If you are accused of sexual assault when the accuser was drunk, we may focus our defence on what occurred and consent.
Understandably, the area of sexual assault and rape is emotive and as such, you may feel distressed when you talk to our team and describe the occurrence of the alleged assault. Our team are trained professionals; we will not judge, we will remain objective and will focus on getting an outcome that is fair to you.
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