Trial set for alleged 1963 marital rape

An 81-year-old Australian man can be tried on charges of raping his wife in 1963, the High Court ruled Wednesday. The court dismissed the man's lawyers' arguments that marital rape was not a crime at the time, AdelaideNow reported. Prosecutors argued that by 1963 an exemption for forced sex by husbands was no longer part of common law in Australia. The couple were married from 1962 to 1971. The husband is charged with two counts of rape, both allegedly committed in 1963. David Bennett, representing the husband, argued before the court that Australian views on marriage were "socially backward" and included the belief that husbands had a right to sex any time they wanted. He said that only changed legally in 1991 when the High Court ruled marriage did not mean a wife had given "irrevocable consent to sexual intercourse by her husband." The court ruled the man, who lives in the Adelaide suburb of Ferryden Park, can stand trial.