Monday, 6 February 2012

"Shame on you, Corrie" says real-life rape trial lawyer

Cassie Williams is a barrister who has run a number of rape trials this year. She's given vent to her frustrations about the legal inaccuracies shown in Carla Connor's rape trial on Coronation Street.

Read it here.

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7 comments:

  1. Anonymous6 February 2012 at 14:07

    it was writing in all the lies with Carla and peter that caused the verdict to swing franks way,

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  2. abbyk6 February 2012 at 14:31

    Had the trial been written more accurately, it would have been a snoozer. Carla is a totally unsympathetic character, a snobby serial home wrecker with no friends and a weakness for drink. The only way to make the trial work, dramatically, was via all the OTT nonsense. Had she kept her hands off Peter, remained friends with Leanne and shared her struggle with therapy instead of running of to LA, then, maybe, a realistic trial would have worked. As it is, I just don't care, and would rather see Dierdre and Ken's struggle with their horrible offspring.

    I also think, or at least hope, the audience can distinguish between reality and television.

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  3. Dubcek6 February 2012 at 14:35

    When have the writers ever bothered with legal accuracies?
    Whatever moves the storyline to the conclusion they want regardless of how lame it is, for example buying a business or a house in five minutes without ever leaving the street, getting a job or renting a flat on the street when you've only just arrived on the street.
    Legality has nothing to do with it and yet they try to tell us that it is an accurate account of life in that part of Britain.

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  4. Frosty the snowman6 February 2012 at 15:20

    Soaps used to send out a message that if you committed a crime you wouldnt get away with it, but things have now changed and its all about ratings and sensationalism. Having Cheryl go back to her wife beater husband and having Tracy let out of prison after bashing her boyfriend's head in without learning any lessons as examples. It was totally ridiculous and unbelievable that Peter couldnt keep it in his pants for a few days until after the trial.

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  5. Anonymous6 February 2012 at 15:23

    I do agree that with rape trials, they have a greater responsibility to at least *try* to make it accurate. Yes, it's fiction, but given the floods of phone calls that various help lines have gotten after certain storylines (Whitney and Kat in EE for one), soaps have a responsibility to try to portray stories like this accurately..
    Rebecca in TO

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  6. Adam Rekitt6 February 2012 at 18:29

    Most people do not have experience of the courts and so will just imagine that victims are routinely harrassed by their attackers outside court and the defence barrister in court. Why should they think that Coronation Street is just lying about this?

    After the trial the prosecution barrister said that it's hard enough to get women to report rape as it is. The writers must be very proud that they have contributed to making it even harder. I won't be participating in voting for Coronation Street to get any awards, except one for helping even more rapists to get away with it.

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  7. Anonymous6 February 2012 at 20:48

    As someone who works in a court please be assured that defence QC's are not ever allowed to speak to rape victims like that and they give their evidence with no members of the public present
    Routine harassment right outside the court building wouldn't be tolerated either
    This storyline was enough to put real rape victims off reporting their crime!!!

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