A MAN accused of raping his wife without her consent – because she had dementia, and therefore could not give consent – has been found not guilty.
The New York Times reports that Henry Rayhons, 78, was accused of having sex with his wife, Donna, in her nursing home.
Mr Rayhons said he drew the curtains around his wife’s bed so they could kiss and hold hands – but insists they did not have sex on the night in question. Mrs Rayhons was in a shared room.
Nursing home staff said Mrs Rayhons was always happy to see her husband and there was no suggestion that she had resisted intimacy.
Mr Rayhons admitted he and his wife did occasionally have a sexual relationship “Donna and I would ‘play’,” he said. “She would reach in my pants and fondle me sometimes.”
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He told the prosecutor in court, “I always assumed that if somebody asks for something, they have the capacity” to give consent. His wife died aged 78 last year.
The case has ignited a national debate in the US about the capacity of people with dementia to give consent for sex.
With an ageing population who are living for longer, it’s likely to become an important issue in the future.
In other news you may have missed…
THE funeral of a baby girl found buried in sand dunes on a Sydney beach will be held next Wednesday.
The Daily Telegraph reports that locals could not bear the idea that the little girl, found in a shallow grave at Maroubra beach last November 30 would be buried in a pauper’s grave, with no name. Her parents have never been found.
The little girl has been given the name Lily Grace, and her funeral will be held at 11.30am. It is open to the public, who are encouraged to attend. Organizers are also seeking donations to the Royal Hospital for Women, Randwick.
WASHING machine repairman Bill Spedding has been charged with the rape of girls as young as three.
The Australian reports that Mr Spedding, who is a person of interest in the investigation into the disappearance of three-year-old William Tyrrell, has been accused of the violent assault of two sisters in a caravan in 1987.
Court papers claim that Mr Spedding shared the girls with other men, which suggests the presence of a pedophile ring.
The Australian says the girls reported the attacks at the time, and that the allegations are ‘supported by case notes and medical files held for more than 25 years by at least two NSW government departments.’
The documents suggest that the girls were told not to tell anyone about the attacks.
THE hoax perpetrated by wellness blogger Belle Gibson is making headlines across the globe.
In an interview with this month’s Australian Women’s Weekly, Ms Gibson, who ran a lucrative health and wellness business, with apps, cook books, and a website, confessed that she never had cancer, and therefore hadn’t cured herself with kale chips and almond milk.
The Huffington Post asked a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan, Michelle Riba, to help explain why Ms Gibson may have lied to her millions of followers online.
Dr Riba said Ms Gibson may believe that she is not lying, ‘because [she thinks] maybe she theoretically does have cancer. Is that a lie?’ On the other hand, ‘she was getting a lot of sympathy. That would be primary. And I guess this turned into money for this lady, but [in smaller ways] people do this all the time. We all sort of exaggerate. A 9-year-old child gets up in the morning and says he has a stomachache and doesn’t want to go to school.’
Cancer survivors have lashed Ms Gibson for taking their money for her The Whole Pantry app, which very nearly made it onto the Apple Watch, before journalists blew her story wide open. Comments online suggest little sympathy for the theory that Ms Gibson suffers from Munchausen’s (a syndrome by which people fake illness, to get attention) with one wag saying: ‘Another possibility – and hear me out for a second – is that (the lies) had something to do with the hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue she received as a result of perpetrating the hoax.’
TWO hostages being held by al-Qaeda near the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been killed in a US anti-terrorism operation.
President Obama has taken responsibility for the deaths of the two men, both of whom had gone to the region in an effort to assist the people of Afghanistan.
The two men were US-born Warren Weinstein, 73, and Giovanni Lo Porto, of Italy. The US did not know they were being held at the location that was hit by the US, and likewise did not know they were being held together.
President Obama offered condolences to the families, saying both men believed passionately in making a difference to the lives of those suffering in war.
TWO of the women held captive in Cleveland’s so-called House of Horrors have published a book.
Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus were held in chains and raped by Ariel Castro over a period of 10 years. They escaped in 2013. Their book, called Hope: A Memoir of Survival, says Amanda, who was only 14 when she was kidnapped by Castro, gave birth to a baby girl while she was being held. She called the child Jocelyn.
That little girl was also forced to live in captivity. The book says that Castro took the chains off his captives when Jocelyn started to notice them. Amanda tried to tell her daughter that they were bracelets. On May 6, 2013, Castro forgot to lock the door of Amanda’s bedroom. She grabbed her daughter and ran to the front door, kicking her way out through a bottom panel.
DOES your dog cock his head and stare into your eyes, as if trying to communicate?
If yes, that’s good for you.
A new study suggests that dogs who gaze longingly at their owners show increased level of the feel-good hormone, oxytocin, but the owners get elevated levels, too.
The same thing happens when parents gaze lovingly at their (usually sleeping) infant children, and researchers wonder if the wily dogs didn’t notice this, and try the trick on for themselves.
