I was raped, says woman (59) accused of sex with boy (14)

Gail Dickinson denied being a sex predator

Times caption: Gail Dickinson denied being a sex predator

A piece in today’s Times:

A woman who has been accused of having sex with a 14-year-old boy while on holiday with his family in Ibiza has claimed that she was raped.

Gail Dickinson, 59, from Glenrothes in Fife, said that she was sexually assaulted as she flicked through holiday snaps on the balcony of their hotel in San Antonio.

She also claimed that the child had “tried and tried again” to have sex with her but that she had managed to fight him off.

The trial at Dunfermline sheriff court had previously been told that the boy’s grandmother had witnessed the pair having sex but was too shocked to intervene. The grandmother said that she confronted Ms Dickinson, who initially told her she must have been dreaming but then said: “I’m terrible, you must hate me.”

In his evidence, the teenager said that Ms Dickinson told him: “Your mum thinks you’re a boy but I know you’re a man.”

Ms Dickinson denies that she engaged in sexual activity with the boy by kissing him on the body, performing oral sex and engaging in sexual intercourse on June 13 last year.

Yesterday she told the court that the sex assault “happened right out of the blue”. The next morning she said the boy’s grandmother had accused her of rape.

During cross-examination by depute fiscal Azrah Yousaf, Ms Dickinson, who can be named because she made the allegations as part of her defence, denied that she was a sexual predator. The trial continues.

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Elizabeth Hobson on Radio Kent this afternoon: Misogyny as a hate crime

Elizabeth will be appearing on BBC Radio Kent this afternoon. Daryl Denham and Lauren Troup will be covering the issue of misogyny as a hate crime, from 15:00. You can click to listen live here. Elizabeth expects to be interviewed soon after 13:20. There’s a phone-in (0800 756 1111) so please consider showing Elizabeth some support.

We’ll post the piece on our YouTube channel as soon as we can.

What difference would an all-female government make?

Our thanks to Steve for this piece on the BBC. An extract:

(Jess) Phillips adds: “It’s not intended to attack men. I don’t hate men, I’ve got two sons for god’s sake. I love men.

“But the fact of the matter is there’s still a massive equality imbalance. And if men feel under attack, all that is is a bit of their privilege being chipped away.

“And that’s okay, they should want to share it. They should want what they have, whether it’s economic stability or personal safety, to be shared. It’s not an attack, it’s an equalisation.”

 

Karen Robb, 43, mother, who groomed boy, 15, over Facebook by showing him her breasts, is jailed for 16 months as judge says female sex offenders should be treated as seriously as males

Karen Robb, 43 (pictured) sent explicit messages to a 15-year-old and exposed her breasts to him on a video chat between December 2016 and August 2017

Daily Mail caption: Karen Robb, 43, sent explicit messages to a 15-year-old and exposed her breasts to him on a video chat between December 2016 and August 2017

Our thanks to Mike P for this, and to judge Heather Lloyd for her comments including these:

‘There is no reason to treat a female sexual offender and a male sexual offender in any different ways. I am not satisfied that it is appropriate to suspend your sentence in this case.’

Sexist Canadian Rape Law Deemed Unconstitutional

Our thanks to Douglas for this link.

He writes “If a man and a woman got drunk and had sex, the woman had been raped and the man was guilty. Prior to this, while the man could not equally claim to have been raped, it was a defence that he was too drunk to be responsible.

The sexist law, that has seen several Canadian men criminalized for having drunken sex with a drunk woman, has been deemed unconstitutional.“