Cheryl Araujo

Cheryl Ann Araujo (March 28, 1961 – December 14, 1986) was an American woman from New Bedford, Massachusetts, who was gang-raped in 1983 at age 21 by four men in a tavern in the city. Her case became national news and drew widespread attention to media coverage of rape trials. During the prosecution of the case, the defendants' attorneys cross-examined Araujo to such an extent about her own life and activities that the case became widely seen as a template for "blaming the victim" in rape cases. Her case was widely known as "Big Dan's rape", after the name of the bar in which the attack occurred.