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Originally posted by Guest_Raincloud_*@14th October 2004 - 01:10 AM
The point is, if the police were allowed to conduct a full and thorough investigation, rather than the biased 'complainant validation' exercise they carry out now before the CPS get involved, the false allegations would be weeded out before they get any where near a court room. That would stop innocent men being convicted on dubious terms with no appeal - as quite often if there was no evidence to prove a story, there will be an equal amount of no evidence to disprove it either!
I back this campaign in principal - in practice, however, the law needs to be reviewed before the falsely accused (who are completely innocent) can be drawn into the debate. These are the people that the system has betrayed the most. I dont want to upset anyone with that comment - at least victims have the backing of the authorities as they are fighting for their justice.
The point is, if the police were allowed to conduct a full and thorough investigation, rather than the biased 'complainant validation' exercise they carry out now before the CPS get involved, the false allegations would be weeded out before they get any where near a court room. That would stop innocent men being convicted on dubious terms with no appeal - as quite often if there was no evidence to prove a story, there will be an equal amount of no evidence to disprove it either!
I back this campaign in principal - in practice, however, the law needs to be reviewed before the falsely accused (who are completely innocent) can be drawn into the debate. These are the people that the system has betrayed the most. I dont want to upset anyone with that comment - at least victims have the backing of the authorities as they are fighting for their justice.
An example for you: my 4 year old son told me he had had a fight with a "baddie" in the middle of the night, while I was asleep. I enquired whether this was a dream - he said no, he had got out of bed and changed into a Spiderman outfit and fought a baddie. I queried how he had done this, and he willingly furnished me with details. The more I encouraged him to tell me what had happened, the more detail he supplied. I listened interestedly, and encouraged him to tell me more and more. He embellished the story until it culminated in a glorious victory for him, and he changed back into his pyjamas and got back into bed. What a superhero!
My point is this: if I had told him straight away not to be so silly, and pointed out that he doesn't even have a Spiderman outfit, he would not have supplied me with the detail. But as I encouraged his imagination, he ended up really believing that he had saved the world!
Please do not misunderstand me - I like to have imaginative conversations with my son, and I think that it is healthy for him to explore his imagination like this. But apply the same prinicpals to someone who goes into a police station and makes a false rape allegation. By encouraging the details without any sort of cross questioning (eg: "so you say he was on top of you having sex. and then you said he was sitting next to you. When did he get off you and sit next to you?") the police are paving the way for false accusers. But they do not question the alleged victim in any way, and after encouraging them to tell the full story, they do not query any part of it! And the alleged victim's word is now enough for the CPS to proceed with charges.
I do not want to be drawn into a debate about who suffers the most - the victim or the falsely accused. Both are despicable crimes, and in both cases the victims suffer unimaginable distress. But I do have to say that at least genuine rape victims can seek legal redress through the justice system - something that (except in extremely rare circumstances) is denied to those falsely accused. Even if an appeal is successful, they have no way of bringing justice to the person who caused their misery.
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