It is immoral in principle to sue someone in the civil courts for an act that would have been a criminal offence, if that charge had not already been tested in the criminal courts.
In the United States, you still have to be convicted beyond reasonable doubt by a unanimous jury, and an acquittal still protects you against double jeopardy. None of that any longer applies in England and Wales, although I am not aware that the requirement for conviction beyond reasonable doubt has ever been abolished by anything so vulgar as an Act of Parliament.
If Virginia Giuffre is prepared to take her chances with that, then she should do so. If that resulted in a verdict of not guilty to the criminal standard of proof, then, and only then, should she bring a civil suit, as happened in the case of O.J. Simpson. And even now, if what she really wanted was her day in court, then she should waive any entitlement to damages rather than simply to the reimbursement of her costs.
It looks like Maxwell was mistried. This could all fall apart.
ReplyDeleteBut we need keeping the point that Keir Starmer is being run by "Petey" Mandelson.
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