THE DEFENSE OF CONSENT ⚖🔞- BY YUSHAB ABOLORE

Your Honour, members of the court,

I stand before you today, accused of a crime that chills me to my core. A crime of non-consent, of force. I must address the allegations directly, and in doing so, I must describe the night in question, not as a crime, but as a voluntary, albeit regrettable, encounter.

Yes, Your Honour, I had sexual intercourse with the complainant. The facts of how we met are simple and perhaps typical of our digital age, Instagram. She initiated the contact, sliding into my direct messages. She informed me she was 38; I am 21.

The professional pretext for our meeting was a haircut. She is a stylist. I went to her home. I will not mislead this court, it took approximately three weeks of non-sexual conversation before intimacy was broached.

On the night in question, she suggested I come over. She cut my hair. We talked. We shared drinks; a couple of spirits. The conversation naturally moved toward sex. She revealed it had been two years since she had been intimate with anyone.

Your Honour, I was physically attracted to her. She is a woman of striking figure. She complimented my physique, asking me to flex. I obliged and encouraged her to touch my abdomen. That is how the physical contact began.

She moved behind me and embraced me. Her lip gloss, a clear sign of mutual closeness is visible on the white shirt I was wearing, which I have submitted as evidence. May I please be permitted to present this piece of evidence to the court?

From that point, the escalation was mutual. She led me to her room. We engaged in intimate touching and exchanged passionate kisses. Then, we engaged in sexual intercourse. At the time, I believed, and truly believed it was mutual and passionate. She felt receptive, and the encounter was physically intense.

I understand the court requires direct evidence of consent, and I have provided two key pieces through my counsel:

First, the Shirt: The lip gloss stain, evidence of a close and willing embrace before intercourse.

Second, the Voice Recording: I admit I recorded the encounter. It was an immature and selfish act, intended for my own later gratification, but it provides undeniable audio evidence. If you listen to that recording, Your Honour, you will hear a woman moaning loudly and screaming "harder", "don't stop", and "fvck me daddy" during the act of doggy-style intercourse. 

I ask the court to consider: When did different, intense sexual positions become a feature of a non-consensual act? How can she ärch her back comfortably, give me blōw-jōb and hand-jōb, different dōggy-styles, cōwgirl ride and still claim it wasn't consensual. 

Furthermore, there were moments when my body was fully withdrawn, yet she physically guided me back inside her heaven on earth. She was not impaired or tipsy during the entirety of the evening. She was fully present and actively participating. She was busy screaming my name and even added daddy to my name at some point.  

Your Honour, I was attracted to her experience and her physical attributes, including her age. That's a fact I acknowledge is complicated given her child is my age. But attraction, even intense attraction, does not equal force. The intimacy was initiated by mutual flirting, cemented by mutual action, and confirmed by her audible and physical participation throughout.

The evidence will show, Your Honour, that the sex was consensual, not rape. I ask this court to consider the totality of the circumstances and the evidence of mutual engagement.

Would the court like to proceed with the presentation of the submitted evidence: the white shirt and the audio recording?

© YUSHAB ABOLORE AYOMIDE 

- Nigeria