World stands with Stanford rape victim

People from around the world are coming together to take a stand against sexual assault on women after a powerful statement was read out in court by the victim to her assailant.

A police mugshot of Brock Turner at time of his arrest.
TRT World and Agencies

A police mugshot of Brock Turner at time of his arrest.

When she woke up at the hospital one morning in January 2015, she had pine needles in her hair, bruises on her elbow and back, and her underpants were missing.

The hospital staff told the unnamed 23-year-old she was sexually assaulted the night before.

After medical and legal formalities, she was asked to take shower and she was then sent home.

It could have just been one of the innumerable cases in which women are raped, but which are never talked about.

But a recent chain of events has helped it attract global attention.

The girl was raped at the Stanford University campus behind a dumpster while she was unconscious.

She passed out after consuming a lot of alcohol at a party and doesn't remember what happened next.

Twenty-year-old Stanford freshman Brock Allen Turner was caught forcing himself on her half-naked body.

He later told police he also didn't remember what happened because he was also drunk.

A trial followed, but it didn't get a lot of coverage until a powerfully-worded statement read by the girl to her assailant in court was published by BuzzFeed provoked interest on social media.

Turner hired an expensive attorney and fought the case instead of conceding and apologising, the woman said in the statement, which has been read over 12 million times according to BuzzFeed.

The full statement can be read here.

TRT World and Agencies

People have criticised mainstream publications for pictures like the one on the right which feature Brock Turner as a neat clean-shaven student compared to his mugshot on the left.

"I was not only told that I was assaulted, I was told that because I couldn't remember, I technically could not prove it was unwanted," the girl, whose identity hasn't been disclosed, said.

She says the case was clear but she was made to answer intimidating questions like:

,,

In March this year, a jury found Turner guilty of three felony charges including sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object.

The maximum sentence for the crime is 10 years.

The girl's attorneys were hoping Brock would receive a sentence of at least 6 years.

But on June 2, a California judge caused further outrage after he announced the verdict, sentencing Turner to jail for only six months.

The girl's statement became public a day later.

Since then, many contradictions have surfaced in the way people react to rape incidents and victims.

People have talked about white privilege in the US and biased coverage in mainstream media.

It has been pointed out that newspapers unnecessarily mentioned Turner's extracurricular credentials: that he was an ace swimmer aspiring to participate in the 2016 Olympics.

White privilege in a nutshell. #stanfordrape #20minutesofaction

Posted by Dr. Buzzkill on Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Others criticised police for withholding Turner's mugshot, which was leaked on social media only when the trial came to an end and appears to be in sharp contrast to decent looking, baby-faced Turner images published in most newspapers.

The California judge, Aaron Persky, who according to CNN is also a Stanford graduate, had come under scathing attack for what many saw as a lenient judgement.

"A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him. I think he will not be a danger to others," the judge had said when giving the judgement.

Now people have started a campaign to get Persky removed from his position.

A petition on Moveon.org received over 100,000 signatures by Thursday morning.

Turner's father added fuel to fire with his own letter to the judge in which he said his son didn't deserve such a harsh punishment for "20 minutes of action."

Quoting a probation officer's report, CNN said Turner had apologised and was "sorry for what he put the girl and her family through during the trial."

A debate around sexism relating to the case emerged after it was pointed out that most of the comments on social media were coming from women.

My blood has been boiling over the #StanfordRape tragedy all day. I came to realize that I have only seen women posting...

Posted by Suzanne Elizabeth on Tuesday, June 7, 2016

The case also highlighted incidents of sexual assault on US campuses.

A Bureau of Justice Statistics report released earlier this year said that almost one in four female college students face sexual assault.

According to The New York Times, a small-time band named Good English has been banned from various venues after it surfaced that one of its members had supported Turner in a letter to the judge.

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