# Is Julian Assange a rapist?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-julian-assange-a-rapist/562700>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [December 2, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-julian-assange-a-rapist/562700 "2010-12-02T19:30:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 7

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**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-julian-assange-a-rapist/562700/121 "2010-12-10T13:54:26Z")

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> [@Grumman](#):
>
> I haven’t seen any really solid confirmation, but that’s the one who supposedly posted praise about Assange on Twitter after the supposed rape, and then deleted the posts around the time she went to the police. She’s also the one who posted on her blog about [getting revenge on cheating boyfriends](http://translate.google.com.au/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=sv&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fannaardin.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F01%2F19%2Fsjustegsmodell-for-laglig-hamnd%2F).

Man, if that’s what you call a revenge rant…

Honestly this rape thing is becoming more ridiculous by the hour, and it sounds like Sweden was asked to muster whatever mud they could find to stick it on Assange. Seems like very slippery mud.

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**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-julian-assange-a-rapist/562700/122 "2010-12-10T15:47:38Z")

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> [@Irishman](#):
>
> You misunderstand the “common law” comments. It is not saying that US or UK law is not written down. Rather, there is a heritage of law that comes from the “Common Law” that is now codified but follows the principles of that system, and there is a different heritage of law that is called “civil law” that places less priority on precedent.

Honestly, I’m not. I fully understand the heritage from common law. And that those principles are now largely codified does not alter the argument that an action (such as, for example, continuing pentrative sex after consent has been withdrawn) can be seen to have been not an offense at common law, but is now an offense under the criminal code.

The reason I believe this to be the case, without going to the effort of researching it, was Bricker’s second comment…

> [@](#):
>
> This view was held to be merely dicta in State v. Baby, 946 A. 2d 463 (2008), but that case dealt with the statutory crime, not the common law crime.

And now, embarassingly enough, I have realized I wasn’t thinking straight at all - of course it is dealing with the **American** stautory crime, as there would be no purpose of a US court commenting on the British statutory crime.

Without seeing the British statute and accompanying case law, I really don’t know if they have criminalized this as rape. I still think it is likely they have, but I don’t have any evidence for it.

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