What constitutes consent in a sexual assault case?

"Actual consent must be distinguished from submission. [A] victim's decision to submit to an attacker's sexual demands out of fear of bodily injury is not consent [citations] because the decision is not freely and voluntarily made ( 261.6). A selection by the victim of the lesser of two evils-rape versus the violence threatened by the attacker if the victim resists-is hardly an exercise of free will. [Citation.]" (People v. Giardino (2000) 82 Cal.App.4th 454, 460, fn. 3.)

Where the woman's lack of consent was uncommunicated and could not reasonably be detected, however, the accused may not be guilty of rape. It is a defense that the accused reasonably and in good faith believed the woman engaged in the act consensually. (People v. Mayberry (1975) 15 Cal.3d 143, 153-158.)