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15th September 2017
09:35am BST

“Should she be raped? Of course she shouldn’t. Isn’t she entitled to say no? Of course she is. Is the guy who came in a scumbag? Certainly. Should he go to jail? Of course. All those things."
In attributing blame to the person who had reportedly been sexually assaulted, Hook set in motion a sequence of events that would see a number of his colleagues ask that he be taken off air, protests outside the Newstalk office and the refusal of Dil Wickremasinghe to present her Global Village show this weekend.
“But is there no blame now to the person who puts themselves in danger?" asked Hook.
“You then, of course, read that she passed out in the toilet and when she woke up the guy was trying to rape her. There is personal responsibility, because it’s your daughter and it’s my daughter and what determines the daughter that goes out, gets drunk, passes out and is with strangers in a room and the daughter that goes out and stays half-way sober and comes home? I don’t know. I wish I knew."
The Dalata Hotel group also pulled sponsorship from High Noon, while Tesco also decided not to proceed with their commercial backing of Hook's show.
On Her earlier this week, Taryn de Vere spoke powerfully about her own experiences of rape - and the impact Hook's comments have on rape culture.
She later detailed the responses to her piece - stating that many people still attributed some blame to her.Explore more on these topics: