Cases like this (despite not being in New Zealand) demonstrate why a low conviction rate with rape is a good thing. Rape is a highly emotionalized crime to
everyone, not just the victim. Rape accusations should be looked at with a great deal of suspicion because of the rare situation where otherwise consensual activity can become criminal based on the subjective outlook of one party, and they can make that outlook be whatever they want after the fact.
It's particularly notable that (in this country, at least) there's a complaint (not inaccurate) that minority defendants accused of raping white women are very likely to be wrongly convicted as evidence that the 'justice system is racist', yet when rape comes up without reference to race, all of a sudden rape accusations are 'hardly ever false' according to feminists.
In point of fact, the problem with minority men being convicted of rape is symptomatic of their poorer economic conditions, just like all the other areas where they supposedly are the victims of 'racism' - they are likely to have little money, and therefore are far more likely to be stuck with crappy public defenders and unable to make bail to assist in their own defense.
But, when we don't refer to race, the image of the rapist that's being crusaded against is a
white male, mainly but not always a college-age kid who cares only about getting women into bed regardless of their feelings on the matter.
The left that pushes this narrative of uncontrolled 'rape culture' and a mountain of obstructions to justice for rape victims' is thus faced with this contradiction wherein rape convictions are a major contributor to their other favorite boogeyman of racism- which is why you so often see
white male inserted in discussions of these issues. Tammy Bruce talks about this in one of her books from when she was the head of the L.A. NOW chapter during OJ Simpson's first trial. That was DV, not rape, but the result was the same- she had the national NOW head freaking out at her for calling attention to domestic violence by using this case
because Simpson was a black man and a rift in solidarity between 'oppressed' groups wasn't acceptable. She goes on to discuss how this helped push her departure from NOW, and her departure from the left in general.
Note also that a great deal of minority defendants are exonerated later based on DNA evidence - as in, it was later established that
they did not have sex with the victim in the first place. This is devastating to the narrative that rape accusations are almost always true and that rape cases are 'hard to prosecute'. They might be hard to prosecute with accuracy, but it seems that in point of fact defendants are being convicted without the prosecution even proving that sex occurred. How they are able to do this is unknown, but it seems that of the victim is pretty, and the defendant looks like a criminal, or worse is a criminal in other areas (i.e. has a criminal record) then juries are all too willing to convict whoever is put in front of them.
It also makes one wonder about the accusers. How exactly are they accusing men of rape with whom they never had sex at all? Probably a variety of reasons, but in at least some cases they most likely will simply take the first man presented to them as a suspect, and say "yeah, that's him", either simply out of desire to see
someone convicted for what was done to them, or simply to acquire the status of 'rape victim' without actually being raped first - and make no mistake, while almost no one wants to be raped, quite a few want access to the privileges of victimization. Rape victims are not stigmatized in this country; they're lauded, and they're valuable tools for shutting down reasoned discussion with a hose of emotional trauma.
Laws like this are a result of 2 things - the need of the left, which has become over the last 40 years completely dependent on victim politics for political capital to ensure an endless supply of victims, and the ineffectiveness and clumsiness of the right in trying to deal with this, mainly by trying not to offend parts of the left that are very good at outraged screaming and demanding resignations, firings, and pulling fire alarms at campus events. This law is the end result of a near-totally fictitious conventional wisdom about rape in every aspect.