CrozierVision

The rape scandal

UK readers will be aware of the allegations of gang rape surrounding seven Premiership footballers in a London hotel last weekend.

A couple of things occur to me:

Privacy is dead. The idea that the alleged perpetrators' identities can be kept secret is just nonsense. I found out the name of the club involved in 10 minutes.
For a celebrity simply being cleared of a serious misdemeanour is not enough. At his trial, the judge said of John Leslie that he could leave the court without "a stain on his character". No, he couldn't. I doubt if he'll ever work in television again.
This (OK three things) really matters to football clubs. They can't just let justice take its course. It affects their reputations and, ultimately, their share prices. If I were a chairman of a football club I would want to make sure that I could demand full candour from any player in such a situation, with the punishment for non-complicance being dismissal.
Oh, and one last thing. If I were one of the accused I would tell the truth and I would tell it in public. If I were innocent there would be a chance that the mud would not stick. If I were guilty there would be a chance of rehabilitation. The problem is - and this is especially true of a celebrity - even if you are found not guilty, if you have hidden behind anonymity, it looks bad and that is seriously career-limiting.

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For a celebrity simply being cleared of a serious misdemeanour is not enough. At his trial, the judge said of John Leslie that he could leave the court without "a stain on his character". No, he couldn't. I doubt if he'll ever work in television again.

Admittedly, this is fairly true of the rest of us as well. If I were tried for murder and acquitted, I think I would at least be the subject of whispers pretty much forever. If I were a celebrity the whispers would spread further simply because everything about my would also spread further.

Posted by Michael Jennings on October 5, 2003

It is not just privacy that is being trashed. The law on contempt, which in theory is designed to prevent media reports from swaying juries if a case goes to trial, has been almost totally ignored in many of the major celebrity scandals of recent years. The John Leslie and Michael Barrymore cases were examples, and I cannot believe how freely the tabloids and so-called quality press have written about the claims and counter claims in the "gang-rape" story.

When I started in journalism 15 years ago the kind of reporting we have seen would have landed editors in jail. The penalty is two years, if I recall.

Posted by Johathan on October 9, 2003