Remember Brock Turner? The superstar swimmer who sexually assaulted an unconscious girl but only got six months in county jail because, as Judge Aaron Persky put it: ‘a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him’?
Well, a grossly similar situation - a white male sexual attacker let off easily because of his supposed squeaky clean reputation - has happened again.
David Becker is an ex-athlete at East Longmeadow High School in Massachusetts. He’s also a sexual assaulter who attacked two unconscious victims by penetrating them with his finger. He will now be facing probation for two years, which he can complete in Ohio, as that’s where he’s going to college.
An officer was informed of Becker’s actions by a schoolmate after rumours spread that he’d attacked two senior pupils while they were drunk, reports Massachusetts Live. Both of the young women had gone to sleep upstairs after a party broke up and woke to Becker sexually assaulting them. It got to court - as so few cases do - and eventually Becker’s sporting history was used to defend him.
His defence, Thomas Rooke, noted in an interview that an investigation found that Becker had not sexually assaulted anybody else (as if two young women isn’t enough!), that he’d clocked the second most amount of community service hours out of anyone in his class (meaning?) and that he was a three-sport athlete at his school.
It’s like doing sport means you could never sexually assault someone - but all this defence does is uphold the stupid myth that jocks can do no wrong.
Worse still, is when the defence wins over the judge like so; Palmer District Court Judge Thomas Estes ordered that Becker’s case continued without finding, which basically means it’s all in limbo and he’s still innocent, unless he takes drugs or drinks alcohol, doesn’t submit to an evaluation for sex offender treatment or stay away from his two 18-year-old victims.
Rooke was delighted, saying his defendant made ‘one mistake at one moment on one night which was clouded with alcohol. We all made mistakes when we were 17, 18, 19 years old and we shouldn’t be branded for life with a felony offence and branded a sex offender.’
Yeah, we shouldn’t, but a really easy way of avoiding that branding as a sex offender? Not committing a sex offence. And the whole mistake schtick falls away when you consider that if it was that much of a whoopsy, how did he get round to doing it twice?
Rooke added: ‘Putting this kid in jail for two years would have destroyed this kid’s life’
But Kevin Fagan, prosecuting, said that the social standing and previous good behavior of a person accused of sexual assault shouldn’t play a factor in their sentencing: ‘I’ve heard that story a million times about wealthy kids…I don’t think that [good citizenship] should be considered.’
He added: ‘How are the girls? That’s the question we’re missing here; are they OK?’
You might also be interested in:
Brock Turner: What Do We Actually Know About The Stanford Rape Case?
The Judge In The Brock Turner Case Is Under Fire Again - For Good Reason
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.