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Full Version: How DIY defense against a rapist in the UK means a long prison sentence
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Note also that she had been assaulted previously at the age of 14. Ergo, a reason for carrying a knife.
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UK: 17-Year sentence for stabbing rapist
https://youtu.be/_TYoStIDRJE

VIDEO EXCERPTS: Let's talk about the case of Martyna Ogonowska. It's a case that I think serves as a bit of a microcosm of what's wrong and what's broken about not just the British legal system, but I would argue the broader British culture, as it pertains to self-defense.

She was 18 years old in 2019. So she was barely a woman. [...] At the end of the night he offered to give her a ride home ... he drove in the other direction, intoxicated, and then he brought the car to a stop, and he began sexually assaulting her. At this point, she pulled out a knife that she carried for self-defense and stabbed him once in the chest. He died from that wound. She subsequently placed herself into police custody.

She was charged for this attack, and she was sentenced to 17 years in prison. Bear in mind, the fact that he was actively sexually assaulting her at the time of the attack is not in question. There is no dispute there. Everyone agrees he was violent, and he was engaged in an active sexual assault when she stabbed him.

And yet she was sentenced to 17 years in prison, which she is still serving. [...] They said that her case didn't qualify as self-defense because she had brought a knife to the scene...

Required to be raped? ... https://youtu.be/_TYoStIDRJE
So... you're only allowed to defend yourself in the UK if you have no viable means of self-defense.
(May 29, 2025 10:31 PM)Syne Wrote: [ -> ]So... you're only allowed to defend yourself in the UK if you have no viable means of self-defense.

The plan seems to be that women should submit to rapists, the rapist can then claim the victim consented and we don't need to waste prison space locking up rapists.

We (the British) are very much against the idea of people taking the law into their own hands. The 'view' of the judge and jury seems to have been that she acted as judge, jury and executioner and that is what she is being punished for. Unless the facts are wildly different from those presented I'd have expected her to be given a bravery award and assistance to get her life back on track afterwards.

FWIW I carried a knife for many years. Unless the report is misleading .. the girl didn't threaten or attack anyone - she defended herself. Just how you pick a judge and jury that won't allow a girl to defend herself - I don't know.