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t appealed the case on which it was held by Lord Keith that a modern marriage was “A partnership of equals, and no longer one in which a wife must be the subservient chattel of the husband.” The defendant’s conviction was upheld with the House of Lords stating that the word “unlawful” no longer had any meaning in the context of rape. The word “unlawful” for the statutory definition of rape was removed in the CJPOA 1994.

Women started being perceived in a different light, people’s minds were broadening in regards to how women should be treated, with prosecution being encouraged by statutory restriction of inquiries in relation to the woman’s sexual history. [29] Police officers and law enforcement officials were educated to stop women being more traumatised than they already had been by the justice system. In 1994, many important amendments to the legislation were made, one of which was, as mentioned above, the inclusion of marital rape and male rape. Prosecution levels started to increase in relation to non-stranger rape etc. However, because of the issue and law surrounding the area of consent with regards to offences reported to the police, the conviction rates in 2000 went to 25%, whereas in 1985 the rate was 7%. (reference required) This was not a huge increase despite the number of efforts, which were made; one would think that in approximately 15 years there would have been a bigger change/increase than just 18% (approx).

In 1999 the Labour government, elected in 1997, pledged to give justice to victims of sexual offences, by initiating a detailed and lengthy review process [30] , followed by a Sexual Offences Bill [31] and then to the current, Sexual Offences Act 2003 (the 2003 Act), in which the definition of rape as it stands today can be found. The 2003 Act came into force on the 1st May 2004. Section 1 of the 2003 Act defines rape (sexual offence) in the following context: -

(1) A person (A) commits an offence if—

(a) he intentionally penetrates the vagina, anus or mouth of another person (B) with his penis,

(b) B does not consent to the penetration, and

(c) A does not reasonably believe that B consents.

The 2003 Act widened the definition of rape to include oral penetration. It introduced the idea of ‘reasonable steps’. One of the major changes in the law of rape brought by the 2003 Act was the abolition of the ‘Morgan Rule/Defence’, which as mentioned earlier, could have been used when a man believed the woman had consented, no matter how unreasonable the belief. The law today to determine a belief to be reasonable or not is done by analysing if any steps were taken by the man to be sure whether or not the women had consented. [32]
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