Is public perception of false accusations changing?

[lemming]

Righto I think it's time to get academic. But I'm also rather lazy and a bit thick when it comes to research. So if no-one else does anything with regards to this then I'll probably abandon it, sorry. Anyway:

One of the things that got me down when I was on bail for alleged rape was the necessary but relentless doom and gloom comments that followed every time I posted something. A few months on and now it's me doing exactly the same thing to everyone else dammit!

So yeah it's absolutely right that people falsely accused of rape are warned (and warned again - cos it's so ridiculous it's not accepted fully the first time) of what a terrible position they're in. But I have a feeling that perhaps the backlash against false accusers has started and is slooowwwwlyyyyy building momentum. But then again I probably only get that impression cos I pay more attention to those stories now.

This thread is for links and copy/pastes of stories in the media regarding the acknowledgement that false accusations happen; false accusers being convicted; politicians ramblings on the subject; petitions on changing the law back to innocent until proven guilty; debates on the effects of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and any other related stuff.

The purpose of the thread is so that after we've bashed ya round the head with how much poo you might be in, you can also see that sometimes the law gets it right (or mostly right, in the end)

But I can assure you I won't be posting too many articles because 1) I'm rubbish at that sorta stuff and 2) I'm lazy. Pay attention, I told you this already. So please post, if this works well I can claim the credit without doing any of the work (I have a feeling this thread is similar but not quite the same as something on another forum - if I have yet again ripped off another idea then hell, be flattered ). Webmoo is this cool with you?

[lemming]

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/Stu...ape.3982621.jp

April 2008

[lemming]

http://www.tamesideadvertiser.co.uk/...pe_claim_woman

Feb 2008 - Only 4 months in jail because she cried in front of the judge - and shock horror she was bullied by a violent partner into making accusation. What a victim...

[lemming]

http://www.daftmoo.org.uk/mooforum/showthread.php?t=658

Our very own Utterly Destroyed! Yay!

[Rights Fighter]

good idea Lemming - I'll add a new forum on PAFAA specifically for false accusers exposed. Ta!!!

[webmoo]

I can assure you I won't be posting too many articles because 1) I'm rubbish at that sorta stuff and 2) I'm lazy.

Hehe. Sounds a bit like me. Thanks for the help! Two of us lazy rubbish people might help to motivate some of the less rubbish lazy people!

Webmoo is this cool with you?

More than cool - it sounds like a superb idea. Thank you for starting it, and I hope it continues!

I've moved it to the news thread - I'm trying to post more news links and will soon update the topic desciption to include much more news and less 'requests' etc

Thanks!

[lemming]

C'mon people...

Thanks Webmoo.

Let's carry on:

*first link deleted 'cos website sucks. See post by Rights Fighter 3 doors down*

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7265307.stm
Feb 2008. Interesting but short article on false accusations - naturally stirring up strong emotions from the people who commented on it, and some comments from utter idiots defy belief!:
'When the conviction rates for rapists have reached at least 50% I'll start worrying about these possible innocents. Considering how difficult it is to have a man convicted even when there is evidence, false accusations of rape seems like a very uncertain method of getting even.'
Erik Lundbom, Ramsgate, Kent
Really Erik? Innocent until proven guilty - ring any bells? Of course, the trauma and stigma of being falsely accused is nothing, if you don't get jailed as well then your accuser hasn't got even? And you're allowed to vote??? Lordy...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KgxwPU0W-Wg
Amazing clip from American news featuring two incidents of policemen being cleared of sexual assault because of the cameras on their patrol cars. Shame we can't prove our innocence that easily! Classic line - when asked why she would make it up, the crazy lady responded: 'If I'd been driving a Mercedes I'd never have been pulled over.' Er.... WHAT THE F*CK???!!!????

http://www.mensaid.com/community/viewforum.php?f=37
Another forum with a section discussing false allegations. It seems I was mistaken in saying this is the only public website on false allegations, though I haven't gone to major pains to see if there's any support system on these sites for people going through bad times, and I certainly haven't checked the valdity of the advice or solicitor recommendations they might offer. Both forums featured in this post have a broader brush (eg this one deals with ALL men's issues - hence the website name!) and seem to branch out into Scottish and American stuff as well. So if you're falsely accused in England, just know that DAFTMOO RULES!!!

Word.

[lemming]

http://lastditch.typepad.com/lastdit...ment-to-u.html

Nov 2007. Wow! Common sense? I like this guy...

'On my reading list before my first year studying law was a great little book called Straight and Crooked Thinking by Robert Thouless. It did me more good than any other book I read at that time. I may have to buy a copy for every journalist at the Guardian as a Christmas present. Just look at all the loaded language in the linked report.

"Reform" itself is a loaded word, suggesting that a bad law is about to be made better. Given that we haven't seen the draft yet, that's a little premature. "Unveiling" suggests that what it about to be revealed is appealing. The dance of the seven veils by Hazel Blears would not, after all, draw much of an audience.

Briefing juries on the "psychological effects of rape" is only relevant if a rape has actually been committed. That is - lest we forget - what the jury is there to decide.

Consider also the use of the word "improve" in the context of the conviction rate. Would a 100% conviction rate be perfect? Only if every allegation of rape were true and if every accused had been correctly identified. It is true that conviction rates are higher in some other countries than in the UK. It is also true, however, that there are fewer accusations of rapes in those countries. Perhaps people there make the accusation, or prosecutions are brought, only when there is a good chance of a conviction? Perhaps the legal protection of those making the accusation in Britain, and the societal pressure on police and prosecutors to take unsupported allegations seriously, has led to the rise in reporting of rape, rather than any increase in the crime itself? If this is true, then the conviction rate may as easily be too high as too low.

Rape is an horrific crime. It is also a terrible crime of which to be accused. The only "perfect" conviction rate is 100% of those who are guilty, which is - sadly - very difficult to achieve. Rape is always a problematical crime, not least because the chances of it being witnessed are low. The common sense of ordinary men and women on a jury is far more likely to help here than the lobbying of pressure groups. If I were falsely accused of rape, I would be much happier for my fate to be decided by a jury which had not first been schooled to believe that my accuser's evidence was intrinsically superior, or fitted a particular psychological profile.

In any crime, it is dangerous to focus on the conviction rate. It is crooked thinking indeed to see a higher conviction rate as "success." It is particularly dangerous to do so when, as in Britain, the courts protect the identities of those who make false accusations. The only sensible way to go in rape cases is surely to protect the identities of both accuser and accused until after the case is decided and all appeals exhausted?'

[lemming]

and even macca's brother...

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/5133,o...-just-solution

Feb 2006 - I'm getting slightly less topical, but it's interesting nonetheless:

We should back Mike McCartney even if his campaign is doomed, says william langley
Smarting from the false allegation that he groped a 16-year-old waitress's bottom while loading up on prawns from a Merseyside pub buffet, Mike McCartney (right), the younger brother of Sir Paul, is turning campaigner for justice.
Mike, 62, says he will lobby for a change in the law that permitted his name to be dragged through the courts while his accuser remained anonymous. This has long been a scandal, and we should wish Mike well, yet for every message of support he receives I suspect he will find two official doors slammed in his face.
The government believes that far too few of us are being convicted of rape and sexual assault. It wants the relatively low number of prosecutions to be forced up, and, far from ensuring that the courts are a level playing field, is set on an extensive rigging of the rules. One proposal currently being floated is to remove the requirement for corroborative evidence in rape cases.
The problem is that juries are less willing than the legal establishment to assume guilt - especially in cases where there appears to be no evidence other than the plaintiff's version of events. The skewed anonymity rule is supposed to encourage more victims to come forward, but perversely appears to increase the jurors' sympathy for the defendant.
Clearing McCartney at Chester Crown Court last week, Judge Elgan Edwards savaged the Crown Prosecution Service for bringing the case to trial. "This defendant has not been acquitted on a technicality," he said. "He leaves the court without a stain on his character. This case should never have been prosecuted. A great deal of public money and court time has been wasted."
Not that this will be much consolation for Mike. "The law must be changed," he said. Too right, and I wish him luck. But he'll find the prawns have more chance of a sympathetic hearing.

[Rights Fighter]

Re the false accusations site - I began to be impressed until I saw that whoever it belongs to had plagiarised something I had written down some time ago and pasted it onto the site as their own, and they also are recommending the HAAP (Historical Abuse Appeals Panel). This group has had so many failures and steering group solicitors have come and gone having been completely disillusioned with them.

I've heard countless complaints against them from inmates whose trials resulted in guilty verdicts (two PAFAA members will know about that - nothing to do with a biased jury but all to do with not listening to a client's instructions - one of them was not informed that the trial had been brought forward by a fortnight so he wasn't at court at start of trial) plus countless failed appeal applications.

I know that most appeals fail anyway, but if you look at their website there don't seem to be any updates and the only successful appeal actually done by Jordan's is Anver Daud Sheikh, a couple of years back. The director of HAAP used to trumpet his "successes" prior to that (successful leave to appeal applications or successful results from member solicitors) over the internet and media and then he stopped because they mostly failed at the appeal itself. Solicitors who were members of HAAP had successful appeals and these were often taken as HAAP successes, when in fact they were down to the particular solicitors and nothing to do with Jordan's, where the director is.

I am very pleased that the help they gave to "Mike" who runs that forum actually worked, but I would never direct anybody there mainly because of all the inmates I am in touch with who are anything but complimentary.

[lemming]

http://www.southyorkshiretimes.co.uk...led.4082534.jp

May 2008:

A WOMAN who falsely claimed she was raped by a man she seduced in a South Yorkshire pub has been jailed after a judge branded her "wicked".
Zara Louise McKenning, aged 21, was locked up for two years after making false claims against Darren Holling when her jailed boyfriend's mates caught them together and threatened to tell him.
Sheffield Crown Court heard McKenning, of Park Road, met Holling in a pub in December last year.
After drinking for a few hours, they kissed passionately before catching a bus to her home.
A barmaid said McKenning was dressed in a basque and she and Mr Holling were "all over each other" before they left holding hands and "looked happy".
But McKenning cried rape after two of her boyfriend's acquaintances walked in while she and Mr Holling were getting dressed after they had had consensual sex.
She told the men he raped her and Mr Holling fled.
The rape was reported to police and McKenning embellished the story, claiming her drink had been spiked.
She also said Mr Holling was violent during the "ordeal".
Mr Holling, 29, was arrested and spent 27 hours in custody where he was strip searched, examined and made to give DNA samples before being released on bail.
McKenning, meanwhile, was also examined by police doctors and even gave a video interview with officers.
Police investigated the crime for almost three months and uncovered a number of inaccuracies in her story but she still maintained the allegations.
It wasn't until February 5 this year that she admitted she had lied.
In a statement read to the court, Mr Holling said he "collapsed on the floor and felt physically sick" with "sheer relief" after hearing the case had been dropped.
He said the allegation had left him unable to stop worrying, "scared" by what might happen and convinced "everyone was looking at him".
James Baird, defending, described McKenning, who sobbed and shook throughout the hearing, as "immature".
He said she had made up the story to "protect herself" as she feared her boyfriend, who was in prison at the time, would be violent towards her if he found out she had slept with another man.
Jailing McKenning, who pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice, Judge Graham Robinson branded her "wicked" and a "blatant liar".
"People like you who make false allegations of rape are shameful," he said.
"You are disrespectful and are discrediting those who are genuine victims of that terrible offence. You dishonour their horrendous ordeal."