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Hi all
I feel that all false accusers should be prosecuted and be subject to stringent penalties.
However, you have to bear in mind that if the scale of punishment is not carefully thought about as it might discourage people from retracting their false statements.
My proposals to deal with this are as follows:
1/ if a person makes a false allegation that they withdraw before the police commence an investigation they should be required to sign on at 06.30 and 18.30 at their local police station for a period of up to one month, this period to be determind by a police inspector. this is the end of lie ins and happy hours and can be done using existing resources to reduce expense.
They should also be put on a national register of false accusers.
2/ if they retract their statement after the police have investigated they should be required to do the above for a period of up to 3 months, at the discretion of a
police superintendant and placed on the register.
3/ If their allegations have resulted in the arrest of an innocent person they should be prosecuted in Magistrates Court, with the punishment options available to include a 1 year sentance, a ?5000 fine and up to 200 hours of community service. If they are not imprisoned they should be required to sign on, in the manner described above for a period of up to a year at the magistrates discretion and be placed on the false acussers register.
4/ If they cause a case to go to court then they should be tried in a Crown Court, on being found guilt the judge should be required to state what he would have sentenced the accused to if he had been found guilt and the false accuser should be sentenced to the same penalty and be placed on the register.
5/ If their false allegation results in an innocent person serving time in prison, on either remand or sentanced, they shouls be sentenced to the accused's sentence plus the time the accused server and placed on the register.
6/ If their allegation results in the accused's suicide they should be sentanced to life, and for life to mean life.
In this instance they should still be placed on the register in case they make allegations against a prison officer or inmate.
I feel that this sliding scale of punishment would deter false accusers, encourage early admmissions of false accusations and represent justice for the accused and their families.
Any compensation payments should have to be repaid, together with interest charges on an agreed weekly rate, if they fail to comply they should be tried for fraud and their goods seized to repay the amount owed. They should also be made to pay the same amount of compensation to their victim that they claimed from the system.
In the event that a false allegation costs the accused, or any of his family their job, the accuser should be made to repay lost income for a period to be decided by the judge in the case. Failure to meet these payments should also result in the seizure of goods, attatchments to earnings and deductions from benefits and pensions until the full amount, plus interest, is repaid.
I think that the "signing on" at the police station is an effective punishment that is very cost effective and subjects the false accuser to a similar level of inconveniance as experianced by their victim at no cost to the public and a saving of courts time.
Any person on the false accusers register should not be denied justice in the event of any further claims, but a register would allow the police to call in a psychiatrist early on to asses the case before resources are wasted.
If someone is found guilty of false allegations twice they should be punished by the next tier of sentencing automatically.
In the event of a court case arising as a result of false allegations the victim should be asked to provide an impact statement and the judge should be able to award compensation as he sees fit to cover mental injury, loss of earnings and damage to reputation.
As with any case there should be a right of appeal, however, as this is in effect a second false allegation, in the event of an unsuccesful appeal their origonal sentence should start again from the date of the appeal failure.
In the event that a psychiatrist be involved in a repeat allegation the concept of sectioning a false accuser under the provisions of the Mental Health Act should be automatically examined
All false accusers, at whichever level their falshoods are admitted or exposed should be obliged to make a personal apology to their victim and provide a written apology for publication by the victim, publication costs startind at ?500 and increasing from scenario 1 to six in ?500 increments. Failure to do so should reult in any sentence handed down being doubled.
In all case, after the first false allegation, any acces to CICA payments should be withdrawn to remove that particular incentive. Look at it this way - insurers keep detailed records of mutliple claimaints and will refuse to cover those with a bad track record, the CICA scheme is only a form of insurance and no insurance company will cover a person who has made a false claim before.
In the event of a proven third false allegation an automatic life sentence should be imposed with a minimum tariff of ten years. On release the accuser should be placed on the register.
The national register of false accusers should be available to all police forces and incorperate a facility for employment checks to ensure that a false accuser is not employed in any position tht would put them in any situation where they might offend again.
If a mobile phone of computer is used in the commision of a false allegation the accuser should be subject to lifetime ban in respect of ownership or use of such devices.
With the advent of the National ID card, false accusers, together with all other convicted criminals should have their ID cards clearly marked with their offence upon release. Any person found in possesion of a forged card, or a card altered to remove the offence code, should be automatically sentenced to a repeat of the index sentence.
In the instance of a false rape accuser this would allow a man she starts to talk to to examine her card, notice the problem and decide for himself if he wishes to swap ten years of his life for a night of passion.
In addition to the punishments above, due to the high level of expense in such cases, false accusers should be made to repay all associated legal costs plus interest. If they fail to keep up with the payments they should be tried for fraud and have all future payments stopped from their benefits and pensions.
For those of a religeous bent it is interesting to note that one of the ten commandments is "thou shalt not bear false witness" and was obviously considered a problem three thousand years ago and is showing no signs of abating yet.
Any false accuser given a prison sentence should be required to attend behavioral management courses and be subject to probation checks for the full period of their licence.
The Register of false accusers should oblige a convicted false accuser to register their address with the police on release, advise of any change of address within 72 hours, advise the police if they are to be away from their registered address for more than 72 hours and any destination if travelling abroad. Additionally, in the event that a convicted false accuser takes up any form of employment, thet must advise the police of this fact and produce a form from their employer stating that they are aware of the conviction.
Any breach of register conditions should result in automatic recall to prison if still on licence and a three month sentance if the licence is expired. future breaches should result in sentences increasing in three month increments.
Well, thats what I think.
Regards
I feel that all false accusers should be prosecuted and be subject to stringent penalties.
However, you have to bear in mind that if the scale of punishment is not carefully thought about as it might discourage people from retracting their false statements.
My proposals to deal with this are as follows:
1/ if a person makes a false allegation that they withdraw before the police commence an investigation they should be required to sign on at 06.30 and 18.30 at their local police station for a period of up to one month, this period to be determind by a police inspector. this is the end of lie ins and happy hours and can be done using existing resources to reduce expense.
They should also be put on a national register of false accusers.
2/ if they retract their statement after the police have investigated they should be required to do the above for a period of up to 3 months, at the discretion of a
police superintendant and placed on the register.
3/ If their allegations have resulted in the arrest of an innocent person they should be prosecuted in Magistrates Court, with the punishment options available to include a 1 year sentance, a ?5000 fine and up to 200 hours of community service. If they are not imprisoned they should be required to sign on, in the manner described above for a period of up to a year at the magistrates discretion and be placed on the false acussers register.
4/ If they cause a case to go to court then they should be tried in a Crown Court, on being found guilt the judge should be required to state what he would have sentenced the accused to if he had been found guilt and the false accuser should be sentenced to the same penalty and be placed on the register.
5/ If their false allegation results in an innocent person serving time in prison, on either remand or sentanced, they shouls be sentenced to the accused's sentence plus the time the accused server and placed on the register.
6/ If their allegation results in the accused's suicide they should be sentanced to life, and for life to mean life.
In this instance they should still be placed on the register in case they make allegations against a prison officer or inmate.
I feel that this sliding scale of punishment would deter false accusers, encourage early admmissions of false accusations and represent justice for the accused and their families.
Any compensation payments should have to be repaid, together with interest charges on an agreed weekly rate, if they fail to comply they should be tried for fraud and their goods seized to repay the amount owed. They should also be made to pay the same amount of compensation to their victim that they claimed from the system.
In the event that a false allegation costs the accused, or any of his family their job, the accuser should be made to repay lost income for a period to be decided by the judge in the case. Failure to meet these payments should also result in the seizure of goods, attatchments to earnings and deductions from benefits and pensions until the full amount, plus interest, is repaid.
I think that the "signing on" at the police station is an effective punishment that is very cost effective and subjects the false accuser to a similar level of inconveniance as experianced by their victim at no cost to the public and a saving of courts time.
Any person on the false accusers register should not be denied justice in the event of any further claims, but a register would allow the police to call in a psychiatrist early on to asses the case before resources are wasted.
If someone is found guilty of false allegations twice they should be punished by the next tier of sentencing automatically.
In the event of a court case arising as a result of false allegations the victim should be asked to provide an impact statement and the judge should be able to award compensation as he sees fit to cover mental injury, loss of earnings and damage to reputation.
As with any case there should be a right of appeal, however, as this is in effect a second false allegation, in the event of an unsuccesful appeal their origonal sentence should start again from the date of the appeal failure.
In the event that a psychiatrist be involved in a repeat allegation the concept of sectioning a false accuser under the provisions of the Mental Health Act should be automatically examined
All false accusers, at whichever level their falshoods are admitted or exposed should be obliged to make a personal apology to their victim and provide a written apology for publication by the victim, publication costs startind at ?500 and increasing from scenario 1 to six in ?500 increments. Failure to do so should reult in any sentence handed down being doubled.
In all case, after the first false allegation, any acces to CICA payments should be withdrawn to remove that particular incentive. Look at it this way - insurers keep detailed records of mutliple claimaints and will refuse to cover those with a bad track record, the CICA scheme is only a form of insurance and no insurance company will cover a person who has made a false claim before.
In the event of a proven third false allegation an automatic life sentence should be imposed with a minimum tariff of ten years. On release the accuser should be placed on the register.
The national register of false accusers should be available to all police forces and incorperate a facility for employment checks to ensure that a false accuser is not employed in any position tht would put them in any situation where they might offend again.
If a mobile phone of computer is used in the commision of a false allegation the accuser should be subject to lifetime ban in respect of ownership or use of such devices.
With the advent of the National ID card, false accusers, together with all other convicted criminals should have their ID cards clearly marked with their offence upon release. Any person found in possesion of a forged card, or a card altered to remove the offence code, should be automatically sentenced to a repeat of the index sentence.
In the instance of a false rape accuser this would allow a man she starts to talk to to examine her card, notice the problem and decide for himself if he wishes to swap ten years of his life for a night of passion.
In addition to the punishments above, due to the high level of expense in such cases, false accusers should be made to repay all associated legal costs plus interest. If they fail to keep up with the payments they should be tried for fraud and have all future payments stopped from their benefits and pensions.
For those of a religeous bent it is interesting to note that one of the ten commandments is "thou shalt not bear false witness" and was obviously considered a problem three thousand years ago and is showing no signs of abating yet.
Any false accuser given a prison sentence should be required to attend behavioral management courses and be subject to probation checks for the full period of their licence.
The Register of false accusers should oblige a convicted false accuser to register their address with the police on release, advise of any change of address within 72 hours, advise the police if they are to be away from their registered address for more than 72 hours and any destination if travelling abroad. Additionally, in the event that a convicted false accuser takes up any form of employment, thet must advise the police of this fact and produce a form from their employer stating that they are aware of the conviction.
Any breach of register conditions should result in automatic recall to prison if still on licence and a three month sentance if the licence is expired. future breaches should result in sentences increasing in three month increments.
Well, thats what I think.
Regards
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