Today, the Guardian publishes a film which is unusual in that it has an actor miming a rape survivor’s real, recorded words. Her face cannot be shown without the survivor, the film’s director and the Guardian risking prosecution. Such is the anomaly of the law in Australia’s Northern Territory. In the NT sexual assault survivors can still be charged and imprisoned for up to six months if they reveal their own identity before all proceedings or appeals are completed.
The woman involved in this film was raped in 2017, in front of a group of men, while working as an adult performer at a buck’s party near Darwin.Her attacker was found guilty and sentenced to three-and-a-half years jail, suspended after nine months. He was released from prison in November 2018, but continues to appeal his conviction.
His victim is caught in a legal loophole, where she will remain indefinitely gagged for as long as that appeal continues.
This film, Asking For It, uses an actor to tell the story of an unprecedented legal case in the NT through the eyes of the victim.
