Friends of the alleged rape victim at the University of Virginia say they were never contacted by Rolling Stone, exposing more problems with the original narrative as reported by the magazine.
Rolling Stone
issued an apology to its readers on Dec. 5 for reporting on an alleged gang rape of a college freshman, called "Jackie" by the magazine, at a fraternity house on campus in 2012 after there appeared to be discrepancies in the girl's account of the story after other news outlets, including The Washington Post, started investigating.
The magazine initially apologized for not contacting the alleged attackers at Jackie's request, but
according to The Washington Post, Rolling Stone also failed to contact Jackie's friends, who in the Rolling Stone article appeared cold and insensitive, discouraging her from reporting the rape out of fear of how it might affect their social status and the remainder of Jackie's time at the college.
The three friends, given the pseudonyms "Randall," "Andy," and "Cindy" by Rolling Stone, gave The Post a very different account.
They said they were shocked by Jackie's story, and they told her she should contact the police and said they offered to get her help. Jackie turned down their suggestions and wanted to return to her dorm room.
The Post report said two of the friends said they stayed the night with Jackie, saying she did appear to be in turmoil, but that she was not bloodied and injured, as she told Rolling Stone.
"We were very concerned for her," Andy told the Post. "We tried to be as supportive as we could be."
However, they said they questioned Jackie's original story, saying that the person she was allegedly on a date with the night of the attack didn't match the name of anyone who attended the university, which university officials have also confirmed.
In addition, pictures of her date that she sent to one of her friends was actually someone she had attended high school with, who attended a different college.
Randall, Andy and Cindy all said that they were never contacted by Rolling Stone.
The magazine had said that Randall had declined to be interviewed because he didn't want to betray "his own frat," but he told the Post that the magazine never contacted him.
The Rolling Stone story reported that Jackie had been gang-raped by seven men at a Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house after she was brought there with a date who she said was a junior at the university. She claimed that the incident left her bloodied and injured.
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