On Friday, March 10, a woman from Lancashire, England, was sentenced to four years in prison after admitting to forcing a man to have sex with her while he was sleeping.
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Tanya Lord, 41, a lesbian, had previously pleaded guilty to the sex attack at her home in Co Armagh at Craigavon Crown Court.
The judge told her there “seems to be no distinction to be drawn between this and female rape.”
The judge stated that “there is a repeated myth that males are less susceptible” to the consequences of sex attacks after describing how the victim has been left mentally scarred and suspicious of people as a result of his ordeal.
He revealed that the victim has received counseling, is still on medication for his mental health, has become distrustful of people, and “feels alone” unless he is with his children.
“I would not wish this on anyone,” the victim said in an impact statement, adding that she “encourages anyone who has been abused to come forward.”
Judge Lynch said if the myth about male victims “needs to be disabused, it can be disabused now by the contents of the victim impact statement I have just read out” and warning that “there’s no distinction between male and female rape – the fact that a male is the victim doesn’t make it any less serious than the rape of a female victim”.
Lord forced the victim to have sex when they shared a bed at her house, according to the court.
According to Prosecutor Joseph Murphy, the man had been drinking all day and planned to meet Lord after she finished work on June 23, 2020.
They returned to her house, had some more drinks and food, and then went to bed in shorts.
Because Lord was a lesbian, the victim assumed that no sexual intercourse would take place.
The prosecutor said however that in the early hours of the morning, the victim woke and “felt a pain across his chest”.
He regained consciousness and noticed that his boxer shorts had been pulled down to his knees, and his penis was exposed.
“To process what had happened,” the victim got up and went downstairs.
When Lord brought his clothes down, he pretended to be asleep on the sofa, but when she left the room, he dressed and left the property.
He then spoke with his mother and partner before calling the police.
He was taken to a rape investigation center, where he was subjected to an intimate examination, swabs taken from his private parts, and a video interview with specialist detectives.
The court heard that the swabs helped form a “overwhelming case” against Lord because, despite her claims of no sexual contact, her full DNA profile was discovered on the victim’s penis.
When questioned, Lord “could not provide any explanation” for why her DNA was found on intimate swabs, and after more than two years of delays and adjournments, as well as an aborted trial, she finally confessed her guilt at the eleventh hour.
The prosecutor claimed that the victim was asleep when he was attacked was an aggravating factor in the case.
Mr Murphy told the court that he could not find a similar case in the United Kingdom.
“Factually, this case involved a woman having sex with a man without his consent, and there should be parity between male and female victims of sexual crime,” he said, arguing that to do otherwise would confirm the “myth that men are less affected by sexual crime.”
