As a campaigner against the pathetically low conviction rate for rape and other forms of sexual assault, it is in my interest to support the type of TV programme that educates as well as entertains - like Channel 4's brilliant, accurate and sensitive docu-drama Consent. I really did want The Verdict to finish even slightly redeemed. But it merely got worse as the week went on.
This so-called reality television did not reflect reality. The case hinged on a scenario that, had police investigated it in real life, would probably not have got past the CPS. A woman alleging she was raped by a famous footballer and his friends; her friend selling the story to a Sunday tabloid; the claimant being a church-going virgin who goes out on the tiles to notorious fashionable bars. The fact is that most women are raped by men they know. If the producers really wanted to show the viewer what happens in a "typical case", why couldn't The Verdict have depicted such a scenario?
Had a jury been selected in the usual manner, as it was for Consent, we would have known little more than their names. Instead, we know all about the misdemeanours and prejudices of the jurors. At the end of her evidence, the claimant cried so much I though she would be carried away on her own river of tears. But in reality, many claimants appear wooden, unresponsive, and/or angry in the aftermath.
Government proposals to admit the evidence of an expert in the effects of rape, so that jurors can understand the complex set of responses to this crime would address this misunderstanding. But I doubt the proposals will ever be taken forward. Having a near-hysterical woman in the witness box (or the "dock" as Megaman put it - an interesting slip), meant she looked doubly like an actor.
One commenter, disagreeing with my assertion that this is irresponsible TV, said: "As to treating rape as entertainment, I have no problem with it. I'm just disappointed that the programme isn't set on ice." This comment made me laugh because, in actual fact, The Verdict was indeed a joke.
The ones not laughing are the countless victims this programme will have hurt, and the potential victims who might be deterred from going to court and facing a farce such as that which we have been viewing this week. Shame on the BBC for allowing this travesty of justice.
