"It's good to think about what women can do differently to try to protect themselves."
Okay, here are some suggestions. I'm expressing them strongly, because some women don't seem to have understood these things.
1. Don't fuck people that you don't want to fuck.
2. Don't spend time alone with a man that you don't want to fuck, because that man very probably does want to fuck you.
3. Don't share a bedroom or sleep with with a man that you don't want to fuck.
4. Don't go on a "date" with a man if you already know that you don't want to fuck him.
5. Don't get drunk alone with a man that you don't want to fuck.
6. Don't continue fucking a man that you regret fucking the first time.
7. Don't go out of your house by yourself, if you are not an educated adult woman who understands that most male creatures by nature want to have as much sex as possible with as many different attractive young females as possible, and men will attempt to do so by various means ranging from courtship to rape depending on their moral standards.
8. Don't communicate with people that you don't want to communicate with. Tell them loud and clear to stop, block them, or report repeated unwanted communication which is harassment.
9. Don't allow someone to harass you (repeatedly after being told not to). Tell them not to, loud and clear.
10. Don't ignore all of the above, which is very widely known to almost every adult, then publicly complain that a bad man took advantage of you, a helpless and vulnerable victim, and also expect to be respected as an equal.
Yes, I feel sorry for the woman who had a bad and traumatic experience with this man. I have had bad experiences too. But I don't understand how a woman could grow up in this world, with access to caring parents, news, internet, and education, and yet still fall into a trap like this.
It beggars belief, to the point that I would suggest that this was possibly not "date rape", but rather a consensual sexual encounter that the woman did not enjoy and/or regretted. At least I think there is some reasonable doubt. There is a far far way from a regretted relationship or one night stand, to date rape. If in fact this was more of a regretted relationship, I think it is not acceptable to destroy a man's reputation and career by broadcasting the whole experience to the public and judging him guilty of unclear accusations without trial.
Men are not perfect, we are not always nice, we can be manipulative, and we might go to great lengths to get what we want. Women are also like that.