Last Night’s Disturbing ‘4Corners’ Report Has Sparked A Review Of Sexual Consent Laws
"She's had to tell her traumatic story in court, she's had to face two trials, two appeals, and still, no final outcome."
Sexual consent laws in NSW will be reviewed by the state’s law reform commission after a 4Corners report last night looked at the harrowing details of Saxon Mullins’ sexual assault, and the five year legal battle that followed.
“She’s had to tell her traumatic story in court, she’s had to face two trials, two appeals, and still, no final outcome,” NSW attorney-general Mark Speakman told the ABC about Mullins’ long legal battle.
Mullins spoke out last night about the ordeal, describing her story to 4Corners.
She described how Luke Lazarus, the son of a nightclub owner, had danced with her at a Kings Cross club and said that he would take her to a VIP area.
Instead, they went into an alleyway where Mullins was anally penetrated by Lazarus. Her story and Lazarus’ story differ slightly: she says he swore at her, he says he didn’t. Mullins says she told him to stop, and Lazarus says she didn’t.
Afterwards, Lazarus asked Mullins to put her name into his phone, to add to his “trophy list” of female names.
NSW Attorney-General responds to the @4corners program on #SaxonMullins by announcing the review of regressive sexual assault laws. It's time we created #ConsentCulture rather than condoning #RapeCulture https://t.co/xuXjKAptgA
— Body Safety AU (@bodysafetyau) May 7, 2018
At the initial trial, Lazarus was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. But he only served 11 months of that sentence after a successful appeal. A judge determined that Lazarus had truly believed that Mullins was consenting, and so the original decision was overturned.
One concept the judge relied on in the appeal decision was that it was a social norm for women to have anal sex on first dates. A witness in the trial brought up that she had had anal sex on first dates before. In the decision, the judge said that this witness had provided “some objective insight into contemporary morality”.
A judge that seemingly doesn’t understand how young people have sex, relying on testimony from the defendant’s friend that anal sex is a regular first date activity, and then bringing that evidence to bear in a rape trial, suggests something is a bit broken.
— Osman Faruqi (@oz_f) May 7, 2018
The night the decision was overturned, Lazarus held a party at his family home.
The decision was appealed again, but a higher court decided not to go ahead with a third trial.
“That was it, that was all we had. They just went, ‘No’. It’s over. That was, like, five years. Done,” Mullins told 4Corners reporter Louise Milligan.
“I was still hurting. I’m still here and I’m still doing it, even though it’s not happening anymore. I’m still living it.”
Mullins told the ABC that she was happy with the government’s announcement:
“Maybe someone else won’t have to spend five years fighting to get nowhere.”
You can watch the full 4Corners program here.