Aaliyah repeatedly told her rapist 'no'. But because of a loophole he'll go unpunished.

Aaliyah Palmer, 19, in North Carolina went to a house party in January this year. She met a man who she liked and they began hooking up.

It was a busy party. The apartment was filled with men and women – mostly from the military. Palmer and her date went to the bathroom for some privacy but when he pushed her against the bathroom sink and began violently pulling her hair out of her head, the sex turned to rape.

Palmer said ‘no’ repeatedly. She asked him to stop every way she knew how. She told him he was hurting her. The assault lasted two hours but, in the eyes of the law in North Carolina (NC), Palmer wasn’t raped.

She had consented initially and, in NC, that is enough to excuse whatever comes next.

“Suddenly, the pain kicked in. He had begun to grip the base of my hair very tightly, and I could feel individual strands being removed from my scalp due to the force,” Palmer wrote for Babe.

“This was the point I told him he was hurting me and when he ignored what I was saying, I asked him to stop. He told me to be quiet and relax, refusing to stop.

“I chose not to fight him as I knew he was stronger than I was. I chose not to run, because I did not know the men who would be waiting for me on the other side of the door.”

Palmer went to the police. She knew there'd been people filming the rape through the door that was left ajar. She asked for the footage but the audio of her pleading for him to stop was indistinguishable.

That's when she learnt about the law in NC that states a woman doesn't have the right to revoke consent after a sexual encounter she originally consented to has started.

Yes. Again: A woman doesn't have the right to say 'no' if she initially consented to having sex... The audio wouldn't matter because Palmer went into the bathroom willingly.

The 19-year-old will never find justice.

"I have anxiety whenever I’m in a crowd. I don’t have the desire to eat and I have no motivation. My education is the most important thing to me, yet this horror has forced me to withdraw from my second semester at NC State," she wrote for Babe.

"This incident has negatively changed the course of my life, all because one man couldn’t understand that no means no, no matter how many 'yesses' came before."

Luke Lazarus was acquitted of rape; The lines of consent.

The law stems from the 1977 case State v. Way. (Yep, a forty-year-old case is still dictating how rape victims are treated in North Carolina.)

The case came after Beverly Hester was threatened by Donnie Way. According to Hester's testimony, Way told her he'd beat her if she didn't have sex with him. He slapped her when she tried to leave the room and they began to have sex. When she started to complain of severe stomach pains, Way stopped before penetrating her anally and forcing her to perform oral sex.

At the hospital, Hester told her mother and nurses she'd been raped. The defence argued she'd initially consented to having intercourse.

Originally, Way was found guilty of second-degree rape but this decision was overturned by the Supreme Court that ruled: "If the actual penetration is accomplished with the woman's consent, the accused is not guilty of rape, although he may be guilty of another crime because of his subsequent actions."

Palmer's experience is similar: She said police in North Carolina often try to convict rapists using other charges, such as unlawful imprisonment or battery. Neither could be proven against the man to slammed her against a bathroom vanity and tore out her hair during two-hours of hell.

Since 1977, women who've said 'yes' to sex have automatically lost their right to say 'no' in Northern Carolina.

What a disgusting way to think of a woman's body and her rights - that one 'yes' is enough to grant ownership.

What a terrifying ordeal for a rape victim to face: knowing her rapist will never be punished for his crime because she originally thought he was cute at a house party.

What an irresponsible - no, more than that: dangerous - way to reinforce society's rape culture: that 'she must have wanted it' and the law won't back her up.