Champagneblade
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- Jan 24, 2010
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The whole innocent thing is a tricky narrative.
He’s been found not guilty. He hasn’t been found innocent.
Unfortunately, rape is a notoriously difficult to prove crime given the usual limited amount of people involved and the law erring on guilt having to be proven, often coming down to be said and she said in lost cases.
But not guilty doesn’t mean innocent. It means the prosecution were unable to get enough clear evidence to prove guilt.
In a criminal case the proof has to be beyond reasonable doubt I.e. there is no other explanation. Whereas in civil cases as I understand it is more on the balances of probabilities I.e. what likely did happen.
To stretch this a little further you may argue that multiple persons accusing him of rape could mean that on the balance of probabilities one or more happened. But then having to prove each individual one against beyond reasonable doubt could prove very difficult in terms of evidence.
Either way, he’s got himself multiple times into situations where he’s being accused of something unsavoury. He’s either extremely unlucky or there’s no smoke without fire and he’s fortunate to get off. The fact he ended up in that situation and the stigma he has with him is probably something United don’t want to go through again in our lifetime.
He’s been found not guilty. He hasn’t been found innocent.
Unfortunately, rape is a notoriously difficult to prove crime given the usual limited amount of people involved and the law erring on guilt having to be proven, often coming down to be said and she said in lost cases.
But not guilty doesn’t mean innocent. It means the prosecution were unable to get enough clear evidence to prove guilt.
In a criminal case the proof has to be beyond reasonable doubt I.e. there is no other explanation. Whereas in civil cases as I understand it is more on the balances of probabilities I.e. what likely did happen.
To stretch this a little further you may argue that multiple persons accusing him of rape could mean that on the balance of probabilities one or more happened. But then having to prove each individual one against beyond reasonable doubt could prove very difficult in terms of evidence.
Either way, he’s got himself multiple times into situations where he’s being accused of something unsavoury. He’s either extremely unlucky or there’s no smoke without fire and he’s fortunate to get off. The fact he ended up in that situation and the stigma he has with him is probably something United don’t want to go through again in our lifetime.
