'Proposed amendments to Sexual Offences Act related to consent could prompt rapists to silence survivors'

The Women's Legal Centre (WLC) Trust fears a proposed amendment to the Sexual Offences Act related to consent will prompt rapists to silence their victims.

The Constitutional Court on Thursday reserved judgment in a case related to "believed consent" in sexual offence cases.

ALSO READ: Changing the Sexual Offences Act could do more harm than good for victims, ConCourt told

A constitutional challenge to have the act revised was launched by an NPO, The Embrace Project, three years ago.

Counsel for the WLC Trust Ashleigh Christians argued against the proposed change in law for an accused to prove reasonable steps were taken for consent.

Christians said there is no reason to be optimistic that rapists won't use the new consent law to silence their victims.

She said the WLC Trust is also concerned perpetrators will make repeated requests for consent until the victim submits.

"The point is that if there are no reasonable grounds to support the claim of a belief in consent, then the defence must be rejected as not being reasonably, possibly true."