The Spinster and Her Enemies - Feminish

‘THE SORT OF THING THAT MIGHT HAPPEN TO ANY MAN’
caused particular indignation amongst campaigners. The judges
appeared to try to help defendants find excuses as in the following
case quoted by Miss Hall, Honorary Secretary for Church Army
Rescue Work. She had
heard of a case of a…man who committed an assault on his
little step-daughter of 14 or 15. He pleaded guilty, and just
as sentence was about to be passed, the judge said, ‘Had you
any reason to think that she was over 16?’ ‘Oh yes,’ he said,
‘I thought she was over 16,’ and he was let off. Of course he
knew her age perfectly. But there is in some quarters a policy
of dealing leniently with these offenders. 6
Another example was given at the same conference of a judge
who clearly showed partiality towards the defendant on the
basis of his sex. Mrs Clare Goslett of the Mothers’ Union
reported, ‘We must look to the education of public opinion when
a judge says to a jury: “We are all liable to fall, gentlemen; we
must be lenient” and they were lenient.’ 7 The title quote comes
from a case which became quite a cause célèbre. It was
mentioned in Parliament by Lady Astor in 1923 and helped in
the establishment of a Departmental Committee on Sex Offences.
It was quoted in the Shield, journal of the Association for Moral
and Social Hygiene, and in the Vote, journal of the Women’s
Freedom League. The judge gave out a light sentence in the
case of sexual assault on a 7-year-old girl by a middle-aged
man. As he passed sentence the judge opined that the girl had
importuned the man, tempting him. In the Vote, Mr Fyfe
comments ‘Surely a person holding such views, and presumably
judging others by himself, is hardly fit to have jurisdiction over
his fellow men!’ 8
The AMSH collected evidence on sex offences in its committee’s
1919 report on sexual morality. Several witnesses spoke of their
disquiet about police behaviour and their willingness to prosecute.
A police magistrate gave the following example:
Cases have come under my own cognisance where a girl is
even pregnant as a result of this [incest]—the eldest girl of
rather a large family. The mother was broken-hearted, but
the police took the line that the man was a respectable artisan
in a good position, and if he were prosecuted it could break
up the home, so they took the line of discrediting her story.
There is a great deal of that going on, far more than any
person would ever believe. 9
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