Under the Radar
WARNING: The following article contains explicit content including sexual assault and/or violence.
The Legal Hurdle of the #MeToo Movement:
Spotlight on the Craig McLachlan Case Vanie Cardinio
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llegations of sexual violence made against film producer Harvey Weinstein in 2017 unveiled a paradigm of gendered hierarchies and exploitation within the Hollywood industry. This reignited the #MeToo social movement which empowered people worldwide to start a conversation about their own experiences of sexual abuse, elevating the issues faced by women daily. Reporting rates for sexual assault have subsequently increased since the movement. It was found by the Australian Bureau of Statistics that between 2010 and 2018, rates of sexual assault cases recorded for Australians aged 15 and over rose by more than 30%. However, this partial victory for sexual violence survivors does not consider the rigorous and discriminative conduct that underlies the Australian criminal justice system. With the harrowing and intense experiences of cross-examination, it is unsurprising that victims of sexual violence have lost confidence in the system and may be reluctant to initiate any legal proceedings. Law reform is needed to dismantle these practices of brutal interrogation and to reinforce the invalidity of inappropriate questioning during the trial process. The recent Craig McLachlan case demonstrates the prevalence of using misconstrued notions of sexual assault in order to discredit the reliability of witnesses. Mr McLachlan was charged with seven indecent assault Ed.1 2021
charges and six common assault charges relating back to the 2014 production of the Rocky Horror Show. The four women, who were also performers in the same production, made the allegations against Mr McLachlan. While the complainants’ evidence did not meet the high criminal standards, Magistrate Wallington remarked that the result may have been different had the current consent laws been applicable. Magistrate Wallington’s final comments in the McLachlan case highlights the ‘troubling and outdated stereotypes of sexual assault victims’ put forward by the defence counsel. Mr McLachlan’s lawyer, Stuart Littlemore, was criticised for asking ‘inappropriate
questions’ of the female complainants such as the length of the average female labia majora or whether they were proud of their figure. Under s 41 of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW), the court must disallow a question put to a witness in cross-examination if it is ‘belittling, insulting…or has no basis other than a stereotype’. Magistrate Wallington also raised concerns relating to the line of questioning by defence that focused on the complainants’ reputation, photographs on social media and even their choice of clothing. It is these sexist conceptions that uphold the culture of victim-blaming which in turn, discourages other survivors from actively seeking legal support. The women in this case sought justice in the legal system – only to be met with prejudiced notions that denied them the integrity of their complaints. How can Australia participate in this global #MeToo campaign when its own legal system barricades the people it seeks to empower? The next step in maintaining the #MeToo momentum is to listen to the survivors of sexual assault and to provide constant support throughout the litigation process. The legal community must also understand the power inequalities and traumas that govern sexual violence in order to dismantle the discriminatory culture that remains present in Australian courts. As emphasised by Magistrate Wallington, ‘Times have changed’.
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