USA: Ist die Rape-Culture-Hysterie jetzt bei den Senioren angekommen?

The saddest part, the most infuriating part, of the trial of Henry Rayhons is that he had to plead not-guilty and testify that all he had done that night was kiss, hold hands, and pray with his wife.

Rayhons is the seventy-eight-year-old former Iowa legislator who was recently tried for felony sexual abuse of his now-deceased wife, Donna, while she was in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s. He faced ten years in prison if convicted.

When the alleged offense occurred, the couple, both widowed, had been together seven years. They were still buzzing with early-relationship randiness. Even at the nursing home, according to Henry, Donna liked to unzip his pants and fondle him.

Then, at the behest of Donna’s daughters— who had put her in the home, perhaps against Henry’s wishes— a doctor concluded their mother was incapable of consenting to sex. The home’s administration ruled her off limits to Henry’s erotic touch. A week later, Donna’s roommate heard what she though were "sexual" noises from behind Donna’s privacy curtain during Henry’s visit. She reported her suspicions to the administration, who reported him to the police.

Henry endured hours of humiliating interrogation, by investigators and at last month’s trial. Did he take his penis out of his pants? Did he ejaculate or just "leak”? Did he touch Donna’s breasts, anus, or vagina? During an interrogation, he admitted to putting his penis "two or three inches" inside her vagina — a confession he said he made under duress, and recanted in court.

Hier geht es weiter mit dem Artikel der großartigen Journalistin Judith Levine.