New trial ordered in rape case

Press, 8 April 1978, Page 2

New trial ordered in rape case

A jury in the Supreme Court yesterday failed to reach a verdict on a charge of rape against Grant Robert George Smith, aged 19, unemployed. Mr Justice Somers discharged the jury after it had deliberated for five hours, and ordered <_ new trial. Smith had pleaded not guilty to alternative charges of rape and having unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl, aged 15, or December 24. The Crown alleged that the offence was committed: on the south bank of the, Ashley River. Mr G. K. Panckhurst appeared for the Crown, and Mr G. M. Brodie for Smith. Mr Panckhurst, in his final address to the jury, submitted that there was ample evidence to find Smith guilty of rape. After returning to his home with a companion, Smith had listened to see “if it was on the radio” — which ■ was highly significant. It was not disputed that the girl was under 16 nor that intercourse had taken place. The Crown had proved that the girl did not consent to intercourse, Mr Panckhurst submitted. Mr Brodie said that it was not denied that Smith had had intercourse with the girl but it was strongly denied that it was rape. The girl’s evidence was vague and most unsatisfactory. When the girl went to the Ashley River with the group of young persons she would have known that teen-age sex was a possibility, submitted Mr Brodie, and with that knowledge she had paired off with Smith and had gone into the bushes with him.

It was very significant that when the girl returned to the car she was not crying and made no complaint

of rape to the others or to her girlfriend when they were alone in the car. On the journey back to town she had sat alongside Smith, who was supposed to have raped her, and on reaching her home she had waved good-bye to him and to the others.

After going inside, she had greeted her mother but still made no complaint of rape. She went into her bedroom and changed her bloodstained pants and hid them under a pile of clothing. She had wanted to conceal from her mother the evidence that she had had intercourse.

When questioned by her parents about where she had been and what she had been doing, she had still made no mention of having been raped. Her mother’s suspicions were aroused and when she searched the girl’s room she found the panties, which she had showed her daughter. She had challenged her daughter with having had intercourse, which she was forced to admit because of the “damning evidence.” Even at that stage the girl had not claimed that she had been raped but had merely remarked: “He made me do it.” The only way out of her predicament was to put the blame on Smith and assert that he had raped her, Mr Brodie said.