was a decision of the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster ...
which decided that an honest belief by a man that a woman with whom he was engaged with sexual intercourse was consenting was a defence to
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...
, irrespective of whether that belief was based on
reasonable grounds
Reasonable suspicion is a legal standard of proof in United States law that is less than probable cause, the legal standard for arrests and warrants, but more than an "inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or 'hunch; it must be based on "speci ...
.
This case was superseded by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 which came into force on 1 May 2004.
Case history
William Anthony Morgan was a thirty-seven-year-old non-commissioned officer in the
RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
. On the night of 15 August 1973 he was drinking in Wolverhampton with three junior colleagues. He invited the three of them to his house, ostensibly in order to have
sexual intercourse with his wife, Daphne. The friends later claimed that Morgan told them that his wife was "
kinky
Kinky may refer to:
* Kinky (band), an electronic rock act from Monterrey, Mexico
** ''Kinky'' (Kinky album), their self-titled album
* ''Kinky'' (Hoodoo Gurus album)
* "Kinky", by Kesha from the album ''High Road''
* Kink (sexuality), having u ...
", and would feign protest (Morgan himself denied this). At the time the wife was sleeping separately from her husband, and was sleeping with her 11-year-old son in his bed when the defendants came into the house. The four men forcibly overcame the wife's resistance, dragged her from her son's bed, and each one had forcible intercourse without her consent whilst the others held her. She initially screamed for her son and his older brother to call the police, but in her evidence, she said the men clamped her nose and mouth with their hands to choke her until she submitted. After the attack, Morgan himself had sexual intercourse with his wife. She then went directly to Cosford hospital where she reported to staff that she had been raped.
The men were charged with rape, and Morgan was charged with
aiding and abetting
Aiding and abetting is a legal doctrine related to the guilt of someone who aids or abets (encourages, incites) another person in the commission of a crime (or in another's suicide). It exists in a number of different countries and generally allo ...
the others to commit rape. He was not charged with rape because at the time it was believed that a husband had an absolute defence in law by virtue of being married to the victim.
Trial
At trial the three men pleaded that they had honestly believed that Mrs Morgan had consented to sexual intercourse.
They were tried at
Stafford Crown Court
The Stafford Combined Court Centre is a Crown Court venue, which deals with criminal cases, as well as a County Court venue, which deals with civil cases, in Victoria Square, Stafford, England.
History
Until the early 1990s, criminal court hear ...
at a trial presided over by Mr Justice Kenneth Jones.
The trial judge directed the jury that the defendants would not be guilty of rape if they honestly believed that the woman was consenting and that belief in consent was reasonably held. On 24 January 1974 the jury convicted all four and they appealed.
House of Lords
The House of Lords held that an honest but mistaken belief that the victim was consenting would provide a complete defence; the basis for that belief did not need to be objectively
reasonable __NOTOC__
Reasonable may refer to:
* Reason, the capacity for rational thinking
* Reasonable accommodation, an adjustment made in a system to accommodate an individual's need
* Reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing, a licensing requirement ...
so long as the jury were satisfied that the defendant honestly believed it.
While the defendants won their legal argument, their convictions were nonetheless upheld. The judges found that no reasonable jury would have ever acquitted the defendants even had they been correctly directed by the trial judge as to the law, and so applying "the proviso" they upheld the convictions.
Criticism
Notwithstanding the conviction of the defendants, the decision has attracted widespread criticism. Dolly Alexander has pointed out that in most other areas of English criminal law, mistaken belief must be held on a reasonable basis to found a defence. The
feminist legal scholar Jennifer Temkin famously referred to the decision in ''DPP v Morgan'' as a "rapist's charter".
Subsequent developments
In 2004 the law was changed pursuant to the
Sexual Offences Act 2003
The Sexual Offences Act 2003 (c. 42) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
It partly replaced the Sexual Offences Act 1956 with more specific and explicit wording. It also created several new offences such as non-consensual voyeuri ...
such that belief on the part of the defendant that the victim consented must be "reasonable".
References
{{reflist
House of Lords cases
1975 in case law
Rape in the United Kingdom
1975 in British law