Is this the photo that could clear Assange ?

[freedom fighter jh]

70. I think we agree on half the issue.

"There is such a thing as rape or sexual assault, BUT....there is also such a thing as a false accusation. There is also such a thing as a true accusation in which the accuser is smeared as making a false accusation."

Yes.

Sounds like you're a lawyer. You certainly seem to know much more about the rules of evidence than I do.

But what if the assault charge is valid? This poor woman, because she made the choice of turning him in, gets her name and picture all over the newspapers and the Internet I don't know what the answer is. Certainly there should be no compromise on Assange's defense. But consider that in the past week and a half or so, about two-thirds (my rough estimate) of all the posts on DU's front page were on the "legitimate rape" issue -- a whole lot of DUers, clearly many of them men (even if the majority were women) -- bent out of shape because of the way rape charges are typically received: with no credibility for the victim, putting all her words and actions under a microscope, all at a time when she's just been traumatized and invalidated.

But I wanted to try to bring together these two different trains of thought on DU. The OP strikes me as a good example of "illegitimate rape" (in this case sexual assault): a sex charge that gets knocked down by discrediting the accuser in a contemptuous way.