scenes from s03e04: top - interview w/ aaron mayworth (suspect w/ sex offender record); bottom - mayworth sneaks up on katie in her car
aaron mayworth is so slimy i barely even wanted to screencap him!!
we’ve seen many examples of people who have been wrongly indemnified as sexual predators/accomplices by jury of law or opinion, such as jack & susan wright (and in the opposite ‘direction’, joe as innocent.) aaron mayworth is a counterpoint: he’s innocent of the rape of trish winterman, and might be innocent of the crimes he went to jail for (technically never verified)...but he’s certainly a sexual predator. there are different ways men rationalize and perform sexual offenses, and this season of broadchurch presents a full range. we see mayworth sexually harass katie (after waiting until she’s alone); he disrespects her boundaries & demonstrates a warped interpretation of sex and consent - believing that she is “enjoying this” - without shame. it’s easy to envision how he could ignore the difference between consensual kinky sex and unwanted sexual assault, and how he might really believe himself not to be a rapist. but his ideas could make him just as dangerous as the man who knocks out his targets with a cricket bat.
& i want to draw attention to the quick two-line exchange where, after already being told to leave twice, mayworth asks katie “your boyfriend leave you here alone, did he?” and katie replies “i don’t have a boyfriend”. it’s a socially ingrained instinct for women to sometimes engage with male harassers in that way, even if they don’t want to, because trying to express discomfort that way might be safer than inviting aggression. though he is repeatedly and unambiguously rejected, & ultimately physically removed, men like mayworth will read into those interactions what they themselves choose to believe.