Court case is dismiss in your favour, can you now sue?

[The Cunt]

A Sydney jury has found three men not guilty of raping a teenage girl in the home of the Wallabies' team doctor. Blake Purnell, 24, and Alun James and Simon Raftery, both 23, had pleaded not guilty in NSW District Court to two counts each of aggravated sexual assault in company over the alleged rape.

The court was told the men met the 18-year-old at the Northies club at Cronulla in October last year. The four returned to Raftery's Woolooware home, where he lived with his mother and father. Raftery's father is Martin Raftery, team doctor for the national rugby union team, the Wallabies, and the St George-Illawarra Dragons NRL team.

The three men said the woman had agreed to consensual group sex, but she told the court they persisted after she asked them to stop because she was in pain. After deliberating for an hour and a half, the jury of nine men and three women today cleared the trio on all counts. Families of the three men wept as the verdict was handed down and the woman who brought the charges left in tears.

Source: smh.com.au (http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/three-men-acquitted-of-teens-rape/2005/10/13/1128796638657.html)

So what now. Can the guys sue the bitch for defamation of character ? I There names have been plastered all over the media and aquitted their repuation is ruined. Not to mention the stress and shit it would of caused them.

http://forum.zgeek.com/showthread.php?t=41805

[Sagacious]

I would'nt touch this with a ten foot pole as far as suing the girl.

The facts.

She agreed to consenusal Group Sex

She asked them to stop when she complained of pain

She says they didn't

She complained because she says they didn't

Was she raped - no because she had consented to the activity and the evidence did not make out beyond reasonable doubt that as soon as she made her wishes for them to stop known to the 'partners' they didn't.

Key issues here are:

1 her consent to the activity
2 her communication of her wish that they stop
3 them understanding that communication.

These guys haven't been defamed because the complaint was not that they forced her against ther will but that they continued after she felt that she had made it clear that she wanted them to stop.

Not Guilty does not mean innocent and they should be grateful that the standard of proof in a criminal court is much higher than that required in a civil court.

They should not think about suing her but be thanking thier lucky stars that they are not being subjected to a ring stretching exercise in long bay.

That is all

[JumpinJez]

IANAL, but from memory I don't think you can go and sue someone for defamation if you were a defendant in a case where your were the victim. Plus, in a civil case, the jury or judge goes from having the case proved "beyond resonable doubt" to being proved on the "balance of probablities". Which means for this case, the girl could very well counter sue and win.