Falsely Accused - Scotland

[scotsaccused]

Hello All,

I was accused of attempted rape in February by someone I can only describe as unstable.

The short of it...
At a flat party, kissed a girl which led to some petting - I stopped before it got serious - not too sound like a p**ck but she wasn't really my type, I was sobering and felt uncomfortable.
I made an excuse to leave the room and I never came back.

She decided to run out of the house and flag down a car and claim that she had been raped.

24 hours later and I am arrested at my home, in front of my family and taken to police station.
Interviewed (advised no comment), intimately swabbed and charged with attempted rape and then held over night to appear in court the following morning.

The Procurator Fiscal released me and instructed police to carry out further investigations.

Around 4 weeks ago, my lawyer contacted me to advise that the case had been closed - insufficient evidence.

I cannot tell you how much this ordeal affected me day to day.
The first thing I would think about on waking up and the last thing before bed...
Come to think of it, the hours in between weren't much better.

As soon as you are accused/charged you feel like your world is over - regardless of the fact you have done nothing wrong.

For me, in Scotland, it's still not exactly "over"
The accusation is kept on file and could be used as corroborating evidence in future if I was accused of a similar sexual offence.
Brilliant.

To the point, and where advice is required by anyone who has experienced something similar...

A few days ago, I was approached by my accuser, her mother and friend at my local gym.
They began filming me, called me a rapist and a psychopath.
The friend then began approaching other members of the gym and inferring to them that I had raped her friend.
At that point, the mother then told me to hang on while she arranged for her sons to come down and "knock f**k out of me".... charming.

Naturally I left the premises.

Should I go to the police about this?
The gym has CCTV and there were a few people who witnessed it.

As much as I want to put everything behind me, I feel there needs to be some repercussion for their behaviour.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and appreciate any opinions / suggestions.

[Casehardened]

Hello and welcome to the forum,

Firstly, it's good that your case was closed and I understand about the corroboration issue as the equivalent NFA in England and Wales comes with the proviso that It can be re-opened if additional evidence materialises. 'No Crime' is a very rare outcome here.

Your post has had several views but no responses and I suspect that, although the forum is relatively quiet at the moment, I suspect that folks, like myself, are unsure as the best way for you to proceed.

The desire to wreak revenge/retribution for the ordeal you have endured is understandable and a stage most go through but may not always be for the best.

As no actual violence was inflicted, only threatened, the best outcome you could hope for is that the police will 'have a word'.

You know this family better than us; would this visit from the police calm them down or inflame them to further verbal aggression? You will understand the difficulty of offering any advice.....doing nothing feels wrong, doing something may turn out wrong.....

[Peter1975]

As usual I agree with CH and you should use your judgement of the situation and the type of people that you are unfortunately dealing with.

My advice is to either change your gym or be on your guard for further encounters and try to make your own recordings if possible.

Harassment and threats, especially threats to kill or do serious harm are of course a criminal offence. Keeping a log of incidents or threats is always a good idea should things escalate.

There is no harm in having the police open a file that can be added to should there be further encounters but as CH says, there is little the police would do about the particular incident you describe beyond perhaps "having a word" - and you should reflect on how that could backfire.

If you wished to go down the civil route, you could take out a non molestation ( restraining ) order - I am assuming that the principle and the law is similar to E&W here but you would need to consult a Scottish solicitor for their opinion.

Good luck with it all.