my boyfriend has been arrested for rape what next?

[loulou]

My boyfriend was arrested yesterday on a rape charge against his ex girlfriend. She is now with someone new who doesn't like my boyfriend and after a dispute between her current boyfriend and my boyfriend she has decided to make a statement against him saying he raped her while they was together several months ago. He has been arrested and held on remand as he has no address to be let out on bail. I dont know what to do! apparently she has done this before with someone else but retracted the statement before the court date....will that be taken into consideration that shes cried rape before?? Will it be taken into consideration that she could just be being spiteful due to her current partner taking a disliking to him? or will they just sentence him straight away without digging this deep? i feel helpless i want to message her on facebook telling her how much of a spiteful cow she is but i'm scared this could have the reverse effect as to what im hoping for....can anybody give me any advice?? please.

[Rights Fighter]

They cannot sentence him without either a trial or an admission of guilt. If he is denying it then it will go to trial - if he is charged. I am assuming that he has been charged as I don't think they can remand a person into custody with that - although happy to be corrected.

Can he not live with you?

A good solicitor will take into account all plausible motives suggested the defendant and the barrister will have those instructions (instructions being 'information').

Please do not contact the complainant in any way, shape or form or you could end up on remand yourself accused of harassment/interfering with a witness.

Hopefully he has appointed a solicitor who is experienced in dealing with such matters.

[Indigo]

Hi loulou

I am no expert on these forums but the one bit of advice is do NOT under any circumstances contact her.
It will do more harm than good.

Make sure he has a solicitor that specialises in this type of offence.
If you can see her facebook page then go back through it to the time of the aligation or around that time period.
Screen capture everything she posted or commented on to see if she has mentioned anything about this happening.

Any other media too such as twitter etc, emails or anything you can think of to disprove she is telling the truth.
Write it all down even where you were at the time what you were doing.

Try and stay strong and offer to help him in anyway you can.

All the best

[loulou]

He pleaded not guilty his date for trial is next month and until then he has been held on remand as theres nowhere for him to go. No he cant live with me as i live with my parents and thats not ideal. Thank you for advice regarding contact with the witness i will not contact her i'm not familiar with the system though I just want to know what are the chances he may be falsely charged? and if so how long of a sentence will he get? i mean surely if it was this easy to get people in jail i could falsely accuse my neighbour, his son and the postman all for fun?

[Indigo]

Yep it is pretty much all that is a needed, a decent story and they will be arrested.
They take rape accusations very seriously as they should, where it all falls down is them believing they are innocent until proven guilty.

[loulou]

well in that time between now and the court case what should i be doing to stay pro-active? should i offer to be a character witness? the thing about screen snapping things on facebook is her profile is private and were all blocked. my boyfriends facebook was very recently hacked into so i have very strong suspicions she could have been the person doing that to deliberately delete the messages between them *sigh* feel so useless...

[Indigo]

Do you have any connections to her such as friends of hers that may be friends of yours?
That might be a way of getting information.

Yes you can submit yourself as a character witness, but having not known him for a long period of time it may be
of little use.
I know you will be feeling very frustrated, I am sure everyone on here will be willing to listen to rants and tears it's not
an easy thing to go through for anyone.

[loulou]

Do you have any connections to her such as friends of hers that may be friends of yours?
That might be a way of getting information.

Yes you can submit yourself as a character witness, but having not known him for a long period of time it may be
of little use.
I know you will be feeling very frustrated, I am sure everyone on here will be willing to listen to rants and tears it's not
an easy thing to go through for anyone.

indigo no i dont really, i know one girl whos losely connected to her but im not fond of her to say the least. ive known him 3 years hes the father to my children (he was with this girl while him and i were on a break and now were back together.) I guess i could stand up to say hes never violated me sexually? or maybe i could suggest one of his female friends stand up and be character witness?

[is there justice?]

Loulou

I'm sorry to hear about your b/f. You have been given some good advice. Indigo is spot on about the accuser being believed rather than a case bring properly investigated. And yes, anyone can make accusations up it seems. Luckily a few get caught out.

If you find you need help coping, do go and see your GP.

I think everyone on this forum started with no knowledge of the system and many lose faith in it along the way but there are a good few found not guilty. Of course that doesn't make everything better because the impact on the people affected is huge.

[lawlessone2009]

Is this in Scotland?

[Rights Fighter]

He pleaded not guilty his date for trial is next month and until then he has been held on remand as theres nowhere for him to go. No he cant live with me as i live with my parents and thats not ideal. Thank you for advice regarding contact with the witness i will not contact her i'm not familiar with the system though I just want to know what are the chances he may be falsely charged? and if so how long of a sentence will he get? i mean surely if it was this easy to get people in jail i could falsely accuse my neighbour, his son and the postman all for fun?

If he's going to court or has gone to court for a preliminary hearing then he has already been charged. Do you mean wrongly convicted? So he is awaiting a trial. Right ok. This means the complainant will be cross-examined too on what she has said.

Lawlessone has asked if this is in Scotland. Not sure why he asked that but he must have picked up on something. If you are in Scotland he would be good person to help with regards how things work there.

It's a good idea to obtain character references from people who have known him a long time rather than you, who has not known him very long. If he has a spiteful CPS barrister they could suggest to the jury that you've been taken in by the defendant. Best it's is somebody not related (although relatives can be helpful in some cases). In closing speeches CPS barrister could say "well they are family, they would stick up for him".


If she has previously made a false allegation and then retracted it - this could be very helpful depending on the reason for retracting. Did she made that false allegation to the police?

[lawlessone2009]

If he's going to court or has gone to court for a preliminary hearing then he has already been charged. Do you mean wrongly convicted? So he is awaiting a trial. Right ok. This means the complainant will be cross-examined too on what she has said.

Lawlessone has asked if this is in Scotland. Not sure why he asked that but he must have picked up on something. If you are in Scotland he would be good person to help with regards how things work there.

It's a good idea to obtain character references from people who have known him a long time rather than you, who has not known him very long. If he has a spiteful CPS barrister they could suggest to the jury that you've been taken in by the defendant. Best it's is somebody not related (although relatives can be helpful in some cases). In closing speeches CPS barrister could say "well they are family, they would stick up for him".


If she has previously made a false allegation and then retracted it - this could be very helpful depending on the reason for retracting. Did she made that false allegation to the police?

Was just that my understanding was that in England they arrest and question before releasing on bail for years... It was the quickness of it all.

Of course he could well have stated he was guilty.

I am assuming that he hasn't which leaves me to question the quickness of it all. Being remanded raises questions too, I do agree that the lack of address is something that starts ticking boxes but then the solicitor should be encouraging friends and family to find him an address so that he can then seek to have the court grant bail.

[Rights Fighter]

In 2011 somebody I knew back in 1984, was remanded into custody almost immediately after the allegations were made. They were made in the February and he was remanded in the March. He was then let out and after a statement by his eldest son he was back on remand.

He had protested his innocence from the outset. He was 72 years of age when he was remanded into custody. His accuser I think claimed that she was 'scared' of him the first time. The 2nd time her half brother (believing the lies at the time) wrote a statement saying that his dad had been in touch with him and shouted - so down he went again. I don't know what really happened during the phone call but my understanding is, the accused was upset and angry that false allegations had been made about him and basically told the son exactly how he felt. This was taken as a threat - so down he went again.

When I got involved in the late April/May he had been released and was on a tag. He was found guilty, I persuaded him to change representation and assisted counsel with Facebook monitoring etc, and the appeal succeeded in October 2012 with no retrial ordered.


In another case (Mr Kaz case for those who know me personally) prior to trial the accuser claimed that she was walking along the road and he drove up in a white van, drew his finger across his throat and said "today you die". He was immediately put into prison without any investigation whatsoever. Three months later, when the case against him relating to the alleged threat was heard at Magistrates court, his six witnesses who had been with him all day on the day in question, turned up to give evidence for him. He was then released on bail until trial.

He was found guilty one count of a 12 Count Indictment and went to prison. Appeal succeeded in 2008, by which time he had served his time and was out.

False allegations can get people remanded into pre-trial custody too. So those on bail need to make sure they always have some sort of evidence as to where they are - ie always be with somebody, walk or drive where there is CCTV, and keep a diary of your day to day movements.

[Indigo]

Sorry state of affairs that we have to do this on a daily basis, just to cover your own ass should someone make an FA against you.
It's the law that needs to be changed, and the way people are treated under these circumstances.

Hearsay and tears seem to be all they need to get you in a world of pain. In my case she changed her statement so many times
they lost some of it but yet the CPS pushed it forward none the less.

It's about time these investigations were taken out of the police's hands and dealt with by an expert. Or some sort of body that
can instruct the police and the CPS more prudently. Innocent until proven guilty does not apply in these cases.