How far are we prepared to water down our legal rights for the sake of feminism? Feminists, activist lawyers and shuck-and-jive politicians have progressively – in every sense of the word – stripped back the bedrock legal rights of accused, in order to placate the feminist obsession with rape. The argument is that not enough rape charges result in convictions, which seems directly at odds with what is supposed to be the fundamental principle of the common law: the presumption of innocence.
If you are pre-judging that ‘not enough’ accusations result in convictions, you are ipso facto presuming that the accusations alone are proof of guilt. In other words, you’re presuming guilt, not innocence. Other common law principles, such as the right to confront an accuser, and the right to cross-examination, have also been stripped away.
But the feminists and activists insist that we ‘believe women’: that is, that we take a mere accusation as absolute proof. ‘Women don’t lie,’ is the explicit claim.
Does anyone really believe that?
In fact, women, just like men, can and do lie. Including about rape.
Geelong midfielder Tanner Bruhn can finally be revealed as the player who spent the 2025 season fighting a rape charge, as the case against him was officially dropped on Tuesday.
A suppression order has prevented the naming of Bruhn, 23, since he was charged earlier this year with raping an intoxicated woman he met outside a strip club.
Bruhn applied for the media blackout on the basis that it was needed to protect his safety.
His co-accused and close friend, Patrick Sinnott, also tried but failed to have his name withheld. The Geelong Magistrates’ Court heard the pair were former housemates who had known each other since primary school.
So, one of the accused had his name trampled in the mire for months. And the false accuser? Still hidden behind a cloak of legal anonymity.
The alleged victim in the case was to provide evidence at a preliminary hearing this week, but prosecutors told the court on Monday that charges against the pair would be dropped.
Dermot Dann, KC, for Bruhn, told the court the case had been “a horrible stain on the criminal justice system”.
“When it came to these allegations ... the complainant admitted she had lied,” he said.
So, when is she going to be charged? Making false accusations is a serious crime in Australian law, punishable by up to seven years’ imprisonment. The law applies when someone makes an accusation against another person with the intent that the person be subjected to an investigation, but knew the person was innocent.
Prima facie, all of those apply, in this case.
The court had already heard that the two men met the complainant at Geelong’s Alley Cat strip club at about 4am on February 5, 2023.
They then allegedly coaxed the woman into her car, before driving off and allegedly raping her in a suburban car park.
However, two witnesses gave evidence that the woman had lied about the alleged attack, telling the court they were told that the men had paid the woman for sexual services but, after she demanded more money and they refused, she had reported the interaction as rape.
She’s not the only one who should probably be charged. A good case for perjury would seem to apply to other parties.
A crucial witness to the prosecution’s case, Harrison Martin, also admitted lying during his evidence, conceding in court that he actually had no memory of the night.
He said the alleged victim had told him what to write in his police statement and that she had made up the rape accusations levelled against the pair […]
Martin abruptly left the witness box partway through his evidence, complaining of a medical issue.
The court heard that soon after he told the police officer in charge of the case that he had lied in his statement, had never been “bashed” by one of the accused, and had made up evidence about the phone call.
So far, though, neither are being held in the least accountable.
Magistrate Kimberley Swadesir ordered the chief commissioner pay both men’s costs, which O’Brien told the court were “significant”.
These young men have been put through hell. Their names dragged through the mud, and their careers and livelihoods damaged. All because of grotesque lies. Surely the liars must be held to account?
