Judge tells woman in rape case "Why couldn't you just keep your knees together?"

quote:

---

A judge in Canada is facing removal from the bench for his conduct when he asked a woman in a rape case why she couldn't "just keep [her] knees together."

Federal Court Judge Robin Camp is in the midst of a week-long judicial council hearing, which will determine whether he ought to be booted from his position.

The case in question took place in 2014 when Camp was a provincial court judge. (He became a Federal Judge last year.)

The 19-year-old woman said she was raped over a bathroom sink during a house party.

According to records of the trial, Camp asked her why she didn't "skew her pelvis" or push her bottom into the sink to avoid penetration. He openly wondered, "Why couldn't you just keep your knees together?"

On the subject of sex in general, and sex with young women in particular, he said, "Young wom[e]n want to have sex, particularly if they're drunk."

In a different part of the trial, he said "Some sex and pain sometimes go together...that's not necessarily a bad thing."

Camp, 64, ultimately acquitted the man charged with the crime, and then told him:

"I want you to tell your friends, your male friends, that they have to be far more gentle with women. They have to be far more patient. And they have to be very careful. To protect themselves, they have to be very careful."
The verdict was overturned on appeal. A new trial is scheduled for November.

---