Help please

[bornlivelife]

There is a girl going round the Midlands with a story saying is doing A levels and talking about her courses at college. She is talking about her work in a hotel and giving a date of birth saying 17.5 years old and telling people she is 17, on internet chat rooms also which are over 16s only. She is saying that her previous boyfriend dumped her becasue she was over 16 also.

She is then trying to get people to see her tits or naked, and after this accusing them of rape, and it is possible she is actually still 15.

She has done this to 10, 20 or even 30 people this year who have been arrested and all have the same story to tell (above).

What is likely to happen to all the people involved?

[Casehardened]

What is likely to happen to all the people involved?

How will any of these people be made aware of any advice or suggestions that may be made on this forum? Otherwise a lot of time could be spent debating this with no-one getting any support from the suggestions.

[bornlivelife]

i know one person accused involved and can direct him to this thread and tell him also

[RFLH]

Have you tried to report her to the webmaster of the forum?

[Casehardened]

Thanks for your reply. Without wishing to pry, but in order to give sensible advice, more details are necessary.

From what you say lots of people are involved and it may be that every case is different but the first criteria is: did intercourse take place, so is the issue one of consent; or is the girl alleging rape when there was no sexual contact at all?

Forensic evidence (or lack of it) will come into play in the second instance.

[bornlivelife]

sexual intercourse did not take place - not in mouth or vagina or ass or anywhere. However she is alleging it did

The alleged event took place in Nov 2009 and was only reported in July 2010 so not sure what use forensics would be...

[Casehardened]

The alleged event took place in Nov 2009 and was only reported in July 2010 so not sure what use forensics would be...

Yes indeed, with that length of time forensics are irelevant, so unfortunately it comes down to word against word; if the matter gets to court she will say rape took place and the defendant will say it didn't happen and the jury will be asked who to believe. Of course, the time delay between alleged offence and actually reporting it will require a convincing explanation....

However if she has really accused up to 30 men this year of raping her, and they have all been arrested on suspicion of this, then I suspect the CPS will be looking very quizzically at these cases; at the very least the girl has been somewhat unlucky in her partners, after all some women manage not to get raped once in a lifetime, or far more likely she is a serial accuser.

If I were one of the suspects, I would be trying to obtain the names of as many of the others who have been arrested and passing them to my solicitor. If this isn’t possible then I would tell him how I found out about the other allegations and ask him to make enquiries of the police officer dealing with my case.

It is important that all the accused are aware of each other; there is strength in numbers and the cases are more likely to be dropped if the accusations are all similar in formatt. As intercourse didn’t occur it would be best to seek out a solicitor specializing in false accusations, other members can give better advice on this.

In this instance the issue of age is not so critical unless any of the accused are over 24. If the accused is under 24 and reasonably believes the girl to be over 16 (and provided she is not under 13) then this is a defence against the charge of statuary rape, which otherwise may have been brought.

[bornlivelife]

Thank you

You are very kind to reply and so knowledeably

Most of what you say is really positive - the solicitors apparantly work in different practices so thats how they know there are other similar cases.

On the down side, the accused is unfortunately well over 24. What effect will that have

[Casehardened]

Thank you



On the down side, the accused is unfortunately well over 24. What effect will that have

Sexual intercourse with a girl under 16 is technically rape as she is deemed not to be able to give consent. However legislation was drafted to stop the courts being clogged up by angry parents of nubile and sexually active 15 year-olds; this is colloquially known as the ‘young man’s defence’ (young being under 24) and gives the CPS the discretion not to prosecute these cases.

If the accused is over 24, I’d be trying to get documentary proof that the girl was representing herself as being over 16; I guess the chat room lines will be long gone but is there anything stored on a computer or on a mobile?

I do believe the best defence will be in the multiple accusations she has made; do you know if any of the accused have been charged yet or are they still in the 'bailed for further enquiries' stage?

[bornlivelife]

thank you again

i think no-one is charged - just bailed for further enquiries

[Casehardened]

i think no-one is charged - just bailed for further enquiries

If there really are 30 men who she has accused of rape, I can't see this going anywhere, after all how would the proceedings take place; will she have to give evidence in 30 separate trials or would the 30 defendants all be crammed into one dock? It would be manifestly unfair for the crown to cherry-pick one or two cases to take forward; this is why it's important for all the accused to be in contact either directly or via their solicitors.

Best not to take anything for granted though; while the CPS are deliberating, take the time to consider any motive the girl might have for making these accusations, especially so long after they allegedly occurred. Try to collect documented evidence to show she initiated any contact and subsequent meetings and, as I previously mentioned, anything to confirm that she said she was over 16 at the time of the initial contact.