'No one asks to be raped': A judge slammed victim-blamers in a powerful 179-page verdict
Last week, a judge in Toronto handed down a 179-page guilty verdict in a campus sexual assault case. But it was more than just a guilty verdict - it was a scathing condemnation of rape culture at large.
Mustafa Ururyar was charged with sexually assaulting Mandi Gray, a fellow doctoral student at Toronto's York University, the Huffington Post reports. Judge Marvin Zuker found the defendant guilty, using his lengthy verdict to call out the harmful practice of victim blaming.
You can read the whole document here, but this is the most powerful passage:
The verdict stands in stark contrast to the trial of Brock Turner, the ex-Stanford student who was sentenced to six months in prison for sexually assaulting a young woman on campus. In that case, Judge Aaron Persky's sentence was widely criticized as lenient, and more than 1 million people signed petitions asking for his removal.
Ururyar's sentence will be handed down by Judge Zuker on September 14.
In the flurry of media attention surrounding the verdict, Mandi Gray released a powerful statement of her own, reminding others that a ruling in her favor still isn't cause for celebration. "I am tired of people talking to me like I won some sort of rape lottery because the legal system did what it is supposed to," she wrote. "If we are told to be grateful for receiving the bare minimum...I am incredibly concerned."
Learn more about the case right here: