Woman jailed for ten years for false rape accusations

@LassWiTheDelicateAir but is it a common defence and societal perception that victims lie about theft?

Reading those comments it's almost like the default is that the woman is 'crying rape' when ever an allegation is made.

So strange because when you hear about someone getting mugged or burgled, people don't automatically question the victims motives do they? The default in those cases is that the mugger/burglar MUST be caught.

Little miss
"think it's bad that she got longer then a rapist. "

Are you comparing apples and oranges?
If you want to go down that road try comparing her sentence to what a man would get for raping 15 women.

It's also interesting the vitriol at her is far more than tends to be aimed at actual rapists. Rapes are so commonplace but rarely (never) are they used to suggest "this is why we need to work on improving the woefully low conviction rate" and so forth in comments on cases (when they're actually reported). Often there's doubt cast on the veracity of the victim even after a conviction with excuses made for the perpetrator.

It's also interesting as I said something like this makes national news yet a case like this only ever made the local newspaper where it happened: www.newhamrecorder.co.uk/news/crime-court/plaistow-rapist-who-dragged-teenage-girl-from-stratford-street-and-threatened-to-stab-her-is-jailed-for-21-years-1-4915997

The disproportionate reporting a case such as that being discussed here gets compared to even rapes of women and girls being attacked by men entirely unknown to them is relevant in my opinion. A teenage girl being abducted from the street, threatened at knife point then raped yet few outside the specific local area it happened would even know about it.

Also, a study in America showed men were more likely to be raped than be falsely accused of rape.

Collidascope

Ugh. Those comments. You can't help thinking that if men are so worried about being falsely accused of rape, that perhaps they have good reason to be.

And they are used to scam insurances, not individuals. Have you ferret ever heard of a case where a person says "that guy burgled me"?

You are incredibly disingenuous in this thread, completely off topic, and then accused someone else of derailing it.

You are missing the point. What Ferrets was referring to is the mindset and the hand wringing that this case makes it so more difficult for genuine victims to report rape.

Why is that a given? It makes no difference to genuine victims of theft that there are false accusations of theft made. People don't not report theft for that reason. The judge's comments , whilst intended to be helpful , just add succour to the notion that rape victims won't be believed.

As opposed to the real situation where thousand of women are being raped and often not even realising they have been raped (because it was their husband/partner/because they didn't fight him off) let alone reporting it, let alone it getting to court, let alone it ending in a bloody conviction!

And I suppose it was these type of comments that the judge had in mind when he made the comments he did.

It's just infuriating that this extremely rare case is seen as something that happens constantly. As if the world is full of women crying rape.

Oh I despair.

The voices of Middle England...

.

Rape is seen as the most heinous crime ever when someone is falsely accused of it. It sends shivers up and down the spines of many men, and women's hearts skip a beat imagining their sons or husbands being falsely accused.

The dreadful injustice of being wrongly accused of such an evil act resonates.

Quite rightly.

It just doesn't seem to be quite such a heinous act when the accusation is not false. Convictions notwithstanding.

Sexual assault is commonplace. As evidenced by the many threads currently here on mumsnet. In fact rape was completely legal until less than 30 years ago.

What this woman did was dreadful. She falsely accused men of what is one of the worst crimes possible.

It would be useful if that crime of rape was seen more as the abhorrent act it truly is. Not something that becomes the worst crime ever, when the accusation is false.

False accusations rarely do any real harm to men.

Oh FFS

I suspect the vast majority of prisoners have some mental health issues, or some other "issue" which contributed to them making a decision to commit a crime.

It doesn't excuse them and her mental health issues shouldn't excuse her!

She deserves everything she gets. This evil woman ruined innocent men.

To anyone feeling bad for her

I don't think anyone here feels bad for her.

What I think is the saddest is that she probably has been raped, just not by any of the men she accused. BPD is strongly associated with sexual abuse in childhood and adolescence.

Some people with borderline personality disorder are incredibly hard to deal with and effectively contribute to them being abused further - which is what she has done by no doubt looking utterly unsympathetic in court and so ending up in prison with a longer sentence than many men get for an actual rape.

It would have helped if anyone in court had had some awareness of borderline personality disorder. It's not a get out of jail free card - but neither do I think 10 years in jail is the right outcome for a mentally ill woman.

They defintley happen. They just don't tend to make the headlines.

And they are used to scam insurances, not individuals. Have you ferret ever heard of a case where a person says "that guy burgled me"?

You are incredibly disingenuous in this thread, completely off topic, and then accused someone else of derailing it.

Jonathan Aitken and Jeffrey Archer got 18 months and 4 years for perjury and if I recall correctly their cases each involved one single case of perjury. This woman has lied and perjured herself about fifteen different cases so she will get a longer sentence.

I think her sentence is justified.

I also think rapists should get longer sentences.

She got 10 years, 5 in prison and 5 out on some sort of checklist.
She accused 15 people so isn't isn't a minor offence.

Dervel if we use your argument then any person abused as a child who then goes on to abuse children themselves should be treated with understanding and sympathy due to the trauma they faced. I'm not sure about that, I certainly don't think that is the stance that people take just now.

I think it's bad that she got longer then a rapist. Just look at all the celebrities who's careers are still thriving after accusations, I'm sure those men are still doing just fine

She has caused a lot of misery and she will damage things for real victims of crime.
She is clearly not well though. I don't mean mentally, as only a psychiatrist can diagnose. But she doesn't look very well and it looks like she hasn't ever been well cared for by anyone. It is a sad case.
I think she deserves a sentence though as it is a truly awful crime.

Let's try not to be apologists for a criminal who has caused real harm by suggesting she is mentally ill. She knew what she was doing was wrong. I also can't quite get my head round the statements that being falsely accused of rape isn't all that bad and doesn't ruin your life.

The language used in this thread is similar, and equally disgusting, to that used against rape victims.

Lets not use this case as a stick to beat real victims of sexual crime , female and male, with. She's a criminal who happens to be a woman. I can't see what that has to do with the majority of women who don't behave in this way.