Except there wasn't a rape. There was a fingering of a drunk girl. If they had just taken a photo of say picking her nose there would have been no issue. But since they instead put that finger into her vagina OMG RAPE LETS LYNCH EVERYBODYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!
Now while it is easy to sit here on the Internet and say there is an obvious difference* between sticking your finger in her nose vs. vagina. I think that a bunch of drunk hormonal teenagers might not appreciate that difference in the heat of the moment.
But hey lets ruin more people's lives.
*Although apparently no one can actually explain why there is an obvious difference.
To visit your gay marriage slippery slope, plug in your toaster. Insert your finger. Now insert your penis. If the difference is not apparent, trying plugging in your toaster. It WILL become apparent.
If one hits sixteen without understanding the difference between noses and vaginae, it is not POSSIBLE to have one's life ruined. That ship has sailed. Ditto if one hits sixteen without understanding that taking advantage of a helpless girl, even (and I stress this point) if her helplessness is entirely of her own making. This is not ruining their lives so much as continuing them to their natural conclusions.
I saw the one kid squalling and apologizing, and I do have some empathy for him. I hope he goes on to rebuild his life, a life of which he can be proud. But he did something truly vile, and he needs to pay for that before he tries to rebuild his life. Once he has paid his debt to society and hopefully made restitution to this poor girl, then I'll have some sympathy for him as he tries to rebuild his life.
Good news. Honestly I'm just as disgusted by the kids who watched it happen and harassed the victim as by the perpetrators.
So nehalem256 if you shake my hand is that giving me consent to fist you because they are the same? I'm hoping to clarify this question so if I ever do volunteer work at a psych ward and come across you I'll know what is acceptable.

+1
Just to be perfectly clear, I'd like to take this opportunity to clarify that personally I find them completely unrelated and to make it perfectly clear that absolutely nothing I do is giving consent to be fisted.
EDIT: Don't put anything in my nose either! LOL