At the beginning of the year, Gayle Newland was convicted of sexual assault after having sexual intercourse with another woman while pretending to be a man. This case raised many questions and controversies, particularly amongst transgender people, regarding the place of deception in the English law of rape.
Deception has often been used by men saying or implying something which is untrue in order to have sexual intercourse with another person. If the person so deceived would not have had sexual relations with the deceiver but for the deception, one can wonder whether the deceiver did receive a valid consent for the said intercourse within the terms of the current law of rape.
To answer this question, one must consider the theoretical statutory provisions on rape as well as its practical limitations.
First of all, one must start with the statutory provisions of the law of rape and their practical implications to see whether such a man would be convicted.
Under section 74 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, consent is deemed present whenever a person “agrees by choice and has the freedom and capacity to make …show more content…
Such deception arises when a victim has sexual relations with a man but believes their interaction is not a sexual intercourse. The victim consented to the “deviated and hidden” sexual act because of an untrue statement made by the defendant, but had she known, she wouldn’t have agreed. This argument can be illustrated by the old case of R v Williams [1923] 1 KB 340 where it was held that a woman which had consented to a surgical operation by her music teacher to gain a better singing voice could claim rape when she discovered the man was actually having sexual intercourse with her instead of performing the said operation. Indeed, the statement misled her into consenting to sexual relations she didn’t want. There was thus deception as to the nature of the
Deception has often been used by men saying or implying something which is untrue in order to have sexual intercourse with another person. If the person so deceived would not have had sexual relations with the deceiver but for the deception, one can wonder whether the deceiver did receive a valid consent for the said intercourse within the terms of the current law of rape.
To answer this question, one must consider the theoretical statutory provisions on rape as well as its practical limitations.
First of all, one must start with the statutory provisions of the law of rape and their practical implications to see whether such a man would be convicted.
Under section 74 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, consent is deemed present whenever a person “agrees by choice and has the freedom and capacity to make …show more content…
Such deception arises when a victim has sexual relations with a man but believes their interaction is not a sexual intercourse. The victim consented to the “deviated and hidden” sexual act because of an untrue statement made by the defendant, but had she known, she wouldn’t have agreed. This argument can be illustrated by the old case of R v Williams [1923] 1 KB 340 where it was held that a woman which had consented to a surgical operation by her music teacher to gain a better singing voice could claim rape when she discovered the man was actually having sexual intercourse with her instead of performing the said operation. Indeed, the statement misled her into consenting to sexual relations she didn’t want. There was thus deception as to the nature of the