Getachew, 28, was accused of raping the woman as they shared a mattress at a mutual friend's house in Melbourne in June 2007.
The County Court was told the woman, who was drunk on champagne and bourbon after a night out, had twice pushed him away before passing out.
She later awakened to find him raping her, it was alleged.
Getachew allegedly told the victim he had pressed against her for warmth and later told a friend the woman had "pushed back" into him, causing penetration.
The judge jailed Getachew for at least 33 months.
I'm going to be accused of blaming the victim here, even though that's not my aim. The point I want to make is a larger one, that our culture seems to have lost the plot when it comes to understanding male and female interaction.
A hundred years ago, it wouldn't have been uncommon for young men and women to be chaperoned when out together. Today, a drunk woman is put to bed for the night on a mattress with a young man - with predictably disastrous results.
I'm not entirely sure what has gone wrong. Is it that our liberal culture refuses to recognise distinctions between the sexes? Is it that no-one wants to be seen to be limiting choice by warning that some choices are imprudent? Is it that modern birth control has made the issue seem less pressing?
The incident struck me, I suppose, because it seems to me to be a sign of a culture that is less able to deal with things as they really are.
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