"You can’t send him to jail, his family is rich and well connected. "
Now this is ■■■■■■ up.
Agree, it is much more serious than inappropriate. The guy is lucky to only get 5 years, should have been double that, he will probably be out in less.
Pathetic and they should hang their heads in utter shame.
Greeks can’t be trusted.
This one does my head in.
Washington: They started flirting in choir, the vivacious retiree and the grandfatherly politician, both single after the deaths of their longtime spouses. Less than two years later, they were married in the church where they met, surrounded by a gaggle of children and grandchildren and hundreds of guests dancing the polka. It was an unexpected second chance at love for Donna Lou Young and Henry Rayhons, both past 70 at the time of their wedding.“They were two good people who were good together,” the couple’s pastor recalled.
After a four-year battle with Alzheimer’s, Donna Lou Rayhons died in a nursing home in August, just four days shy of her 79th birthday. A week later, Henry Rayhons was arrested and charged with sexual abuse. State prosecutors accused him of having sex with his wife while she was incapacitated by dementia.
Rayhons’s trial, which begins on Wednesday, is a rare and possibly unprecedented examination of a little-explored aspect of consent. While much of the discussion about rape these days swirls around the influence of drugs, alcohol and the culture on college campuses, the Rayhons case asks a very different question: When is a previously consenting spouse suffering from dementia no longer able to say yes to sex?
Friends and family say that Donna Lou and Henry Rayhons, a member of the Iowa House of Representatives from 1997 until this year, were besotted with one another throughout their relationship. She often accompanied him to the state Capitol in Des Moines.
But a few years into their marriage, Donna was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. In March of last year, Donna’s daughter Linda Dunshee took her mother out to lunch. Beneath her winter coat and blazer, Donna was wearing only a sleep teddy that left her breasts exposed. Later, Donna put her hands in the toilet bowl in the restaurant bathroom, Dunshee told a state investigator.
On March 29, Donna was moved to Concord Care Centre in Garner, Iowa, a five-minute drive from her home with Rayhons. Rayhons reportedly resisted the move and clashed with Donna’s daughters - both from her first marriage - over how she should be cared for at the facility.
In May, Dunshee and Donna’s other daughter, Suzan Brunes, met with Concord staff and drew up a care plan for Donna, according to a state affidavit. At the meeting, the women and doctors concluded that Donna was no longer able to consent to sex, a fact Rayhons was informed of.
But a week later, on May 23, surveillance video showed Rayhons spending about 30 minutes in his wife’s room. When he left, he was holding her underwear, which he dropped into a laundry bag in the hallway.
Donna’s roommate told nursing home staff that Rayhons had come into the room and closed a privacy curtain around his wife’s bed. She then heard noises indicating that Rayhons was having sex with Donna, the affidavit said.
That night, Brunes took Donna to the hospital for a rape test, Bloomberg reported. Her underwear and bedding were sent to a crime lab for an examination.
Shortly after, a judge approved Brunes’s application to become her mother’s temporary guardian, which cited issues between Rayhons, Concord staff and Donna’s other family members. Around the same time, a state investigator showed up at Rayhons’s home to interview him about the alleged assault. In the interview, Rayhons admitted to having “sexual contact” with his wife on May 23, according to the state affidavit.
Donna died just two months later, and Rayhons was arrested a week after that. Shortly before the charges were filed, Rayhons withdrew from a race to serve a 10th term as state representative for Iowa’s 8th District.
Rayhons’s prominence in the area prompted the Iowa attorney general’s office to seek to move the trial out of Hancock County, where prosecutors argued they would not be able to find an impartial jury after the charges had been covered so extensively in local news. A judge denied the request.
According to Bloomberg, in the months after moving to Concord Care, Donna fared poorly on the Brief Interview for Mental Status, a cognitive test that measures dementia by asking patients a series of memory questions. On a May 13 test, just 10 days before the alleged assault, she got a score of zero on the BIMS test.
A statement from Rayhons’s family released after criminal charges were filed against him dismisses the notion that any contact between Rayhons and his wife could be considered rape.
“Donna’s location did not change Dad’s love for Donna nor her love for him. It did not change their marriage relationship. And so he continued to have contact with his spouse in the nursing home; who among us would not?” it read. “. . . Accusing a spouse of a crime for continuing a relationship with his spouse in a nursing home seems to us to be incredibly illogical and unnatural, as well as incredibly hurtful.”
What a mess
Whew.
That’s a messy one.
No pun intended, of course.
Just watched the Rosie Batty speech to the Canberra Press Club. What an absolutely outstanding individual. I dont think I have ever in the history of the Australian of the Year seen anyone make such an impact . Phenomenal person. Very very important mission to do something about an issue that has been kept in the shadows for so long.
In that speech, she started out congratulating the press for helping her cause, then challenged them to do better, to be more professional, to do more research, to change the slant of their articles, and far from what started out seeming to be a bit of a brown nose job on the press turned out to be a dose of finely balanced encouragement, criticism, and inspiration.
In terms of oration, she is no Obama, nor would she want to or need to be. But her performance was rivetting . Unreal.
I tread carefully saying this, but Rosie Batty’s tragedy has put Anderson’s mental illness to one side.
Mental health and domestic violence issues should be dealt with separately where appropriate and together in her case but the focus now is wholly upon women and extenuated violence issues. Easy to identify the problem in of of these problems but other is just too hard.
Posted with great sadness for her son Luke.
Former Lions player accused of trying to kill girlfriend
38 minutes ago
Kate KyriacouThe Courier-Mail
Albert Proud when he played with the Brisbane Lions. Pic: Darren England
FORMER Brisbane Lions player Albert Proud is in custody charged with the attempted murder of his girlfriend.
The footballer’s charges were dealt with briefly in the Richlands Magistrates Court this morning.
He did not apply for bail.
Proud has been charged with attempted murder, acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm and wilful damage.
It is understood the charges relate to events that took place in Holland Park during the early hours of Sunday morning.
Albert Proud is accused of trying to kill his girlfriend. Pic: Liam Kidston.
Up there with the biggest pieces of s*** I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting
Up there with the biggest pieces of s*** I've ever had the displeasure of meeting
I want a top 5 now.
He bottled a woman in a pub at one point didn’t he?
He bottled a woman in a pub at one point didn't he?
Correct
He was out with some Lions players after a game in Brisbane when I met him
Ended up getting kicked out after he grabbed a girl between the legs
Says a lot that he made Fev seem polite (another of my top 5ers) and none of the Lions players batted an eyelid or made an effort to stop him getting booted out
Craig McDermott accused of murdering ex-partner Fiona Warzywoda
29 minutes ago
Shannon DeeryHerald Sun
Fiona Warzywoda, 33, as stabbed to death in broad daylight outside the Sunshine shopping centre on April 16 last year.
A MAN accused of the brutal daylight slaying of his ex-partner had forewarned their children he was going to kill her, a jury has heard.
Mother-of-four Fiona Warzywoda was stabbed to death in broad daylight outside the Sunshine shopping centre on April 16 last year.
Her former partner, Craig McDermott, is standing trial in the Supreme Court charged with a single count of murder.
Two of their children will give evidence during the trial.
Opening the Crown case today prosecutor Brendan Kissane, QC, said Mr McDermott told the couple’s oldest child he would kill Ms Warzywoda.
The alleged warning came about a month after the couple had separated, and just weeks before Mrs Warzywoda was killed.
The jury was told that Mr McDermott was also overheard saying “I’m going to slice her” and on the day she died told Mrs Warzywoda: “you’re f***ed”.
Hours before she died Mrs Warzywoda and Mr McDermott had attended the Sunshine Magistrates Court over a hearing related to an intervention order.
The jury heard after leaving court Mr McDermott bought a knife before having a coffee with his oldest son Dylan, who is not related to Mrs Warzywoda.
Shortly later he allegedly approached Ms Warzywoda in a nearby street and fatally stabbed her six times to the chest, neck and head.
He then fled on foot to his car which was parked nearby, had a minor collision and ran over his son’s foot in his attempt to getaway.
“All of that takes … something just short of 60 seconds,” Mr Kissane said.
“The prosecution says he stabbed Ms Warzywoda six times, three in the chest, one under her chin, one on her shoulder and one to the head.
“Did he intend to kill or cause real serious injury to Ms Warzywoda?
We say yes, he did,” he said.
John Desmond, for Mr McDermott, said his client was not carrying a knife on the day Ms Warzywoda died and did not buy one.
He said Mr McDermott had acted in self defence and suggested to the jury that Ms Warzywoda had produced the knife.
He also said claims that Mr McDermott had forewarned he would kill Ms Warzywoda were wrong, attributing them to “a disgruntled child or children.”
The trial, before Justice Jack Rush, continues.
what a piece of work.
Surely not the cricketer?
What an unbelievable defence.
Surely not the cricketer?It's the red hair, I tells ya