I read with interest Mandy Nolan’s article on the trial of Brittany Higgins. I noticed a marked difference in the attitudes of people regarding this trial, and the non-trial of another accused rapist.
The man I refer to is Julian Assange. I think we all know of Assange’s near-deity status in the region. He was accused of not one but two separate rapes at different times by two different women.
Now after reading Mandy’s rage against the patriarchy, as an avowed Assange supporter, how does she feel about his behaviour?
I noticed one article, written in his defence, said that the accusation was made that these women ‘made it up’ and it was all a beat up to get poor Assange to America. Sound patriarchally familiar? That he was ‘forced’ to go to the Ecuadorian embassy. In fact he made repeated pleas to many countries for asylum and his last and only option was Ecuador.
The difference is the attitude towards him and anyone else. Most people, feminists or not, agree that Julian is obviously innocent and it’s all a conspiracy to put him away. The women were somehow lying. How do these people know this when he hid from justice for years? It seems a very patriarchal attitude but is supported by many women and men around the area. What if he was indeed guilty and he fled for a reason?
His supporters will say the charges were dropped… eventually and after he fled justice and years later when there was no chance of him appearing anyway. The Ecuadorians grew sick of his messiah complex and invited the cops in to drag him out, and the rest is history.
What Mandy and his supporters should do is take off the blinkers and not have a bet each way. At least Lehrmann did not flee jurisdiction, as St Julian willingly did.
The problem for Assange is, if he had the decency and guts to face the music in Sweden, with a legal justice system far in advance of the US’s, he may be free now. You reap what you sow.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
