Rape and murder - all in a day's work if you're a woman, apparently
The Grauniad offers up this little gem of criminology with regard to the case against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito for, allegedly, participating in the murder of British student Meredith Kercher:
"[...] prosecutors had already ordered the arrest of Sollecito, Knox and a Congolese bar owner, Patrick Lumumba, who employed the American as a part-time waitress. Lacking an obvious motive, they suggested that the trio had killed Kercher because she refused to join them in a drug-fuelled orgy.
The defence has argued all along that the prosecutors should have ditched this extraordinary scenario and accepted that Guede simply broke into the house and murdered the British student in a sex attack.[...]
Ultimately, what the judges and jurors have to decide is whether there is sufficient evidence for the prosecutors' theory - whether the truth behind the mystery of Via della Pergola is bizarre or just banal."
Now, of course we all know that women are not actually the legitimate owners of their bodies, and it's a commonplace that violation of said public property is a minor and in general little regarded infraction of social niceties - more of a case of bad form that an actual, you know, crime.
Still, I can't quite help giving a small shudder for any potential daughters (I know, I'm so sentimental) or life partner of a man who thinks of breaking in to a woman's home in order to rape her is "simple" and to whom going the extra mile to actually cut her throat is "banal".
Incidentally, notice how nobody's been using the word "rape" in all of their blatherings about poor, poor Meredith Kercher? She was "sexually assaulted". Rape is something that happens to virginal innocents accosted by complete strangers while wearing a burka and keeping their legs firmly crossed. Naughty girls who not only have the gall to demand an education, but the added insolence of pursuing it among foreigners - and then cap it all by actually going to parties where there are potential sexual encounters - are frankly asking for it.
Oh an also, is it me, or would you expect to see a picture of this Raffaele Sollecito dude somewhere? Cause all I'm noticing are photos of Ms Knox, perfectly groomed hair flying and smouldering eyes shaded in a sidelong glance. What, the media fetishize a controversial female figure? Surely not, I hear you cry!