Book Review: Prima Facie

I’ll keep this one short. This week is a play I couldn’t quite finish. I had to skip quite a few bits because this play deals with sexual assault. To say it was triggering is an understatement.

This play looks at the UK legal system in relation to the difference between the ‘truth’ and the ‘legal truth’. Two subtly different ideals, because legal truth deals with doubt. If there is doubt that X happened, then it is not the legal truth. The job of the prosecution is to test and test and test the ‘truth’. And that’s what happens in assault cases “The defence doesn’t have to prove that she did not consent you just have to point out that HE DID NOT KNOW there was no consent” and that is the devastating truth of the matter. The system is rigged.

Tessa is the lawyer for the defence who has defended people who may have committed a crime. The question that she cannot answer is “But what if they did it?!”. She does not care about that. She cares about power. But when the unthinkable happens to her and she is thrown to the other side of the legal bench, relying on The Crown for a guilty verdict? The painful irony isn't lost on anyone. It almost seems inevitable.