A barrister has told a jury not to judge the “moral standards” of his client, who stands trial accused of raping a student on her first day at university.
Defendant Akeem Hassain, 20, is facing trial at Cardiff Crown Court accused of raping another student , also 20.
The court was previously told the alleged victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, got drunk on her first night of university and woke to find a man having sex with her.
She claims she also told Hassain to stop because he was hurting her and she was bleeding.
'Sexual standards of morality change'
Hassain, of Oak Road, Merthyr Tydfil, who studies police sciences, denies rape and claims sexual intercourse between him and the alleged victim in
September 2014 was consensual.
Defence barrister John Ryan asked the jury not to judge the moral standards of Hassain and the alleged victim as public attitudes towards drinking alcohol and sex had changed.
He said: “Some of us may remember a television series called The Young Ones and any of us who watched it saw it depicted a squalid house where students lived and attended Scumbag College.
“There was little sexual success for them and little money for drink. That is how some of us may remember our time in university.
“It seems times have very much changed since the times of The Young Ones but one thing that hasn’t changed is a girl’s desire not to be branded as easy, especially after drinking to excess in front of a new peer group.
“Sexual standards of morality change with time and it’s not (the jury’s) function to judge the moral standards of (the alleged victim) or Akeem Hassain.”
'Need for common sense'
Mr Ryan also went on to say how much public attitudes towards sex had changed since the publication of risque novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover, in
1960, the production of Romans in Britain, in 1980, and cited programmes such as the BBC’s Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents.
He said: “There’s a need for common sense on the post 18-30 generation’s attitude to sex and drink and other such matters.
“Many of us with children may watch Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents where you see teenagers head abroad and behave in a such a way of an 18-30 holiday and making their parents cringe.
“This is just another example of a difference in attitude in some people’s behaviour.”
The trial heard on Thursday how the alleged victim could only remember part of what happened when she and fellow freshers started socialising not long after they finished unpacking.
The court also heard how some of her new friends had to physically assist the young women back to her room because of the state she was in.
'Only two people can know what happened'
Mr Ryan said: “We have been picking over the way two 18-year-old’s behaved after drinking alcohol excessively amid the heightened desires of Freshers Week.
“There are only two people who know what happened, Akeem Hassain and (the alleged victim).
For full story see - http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/jury-trial-student-accused-raping-10320396
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