A very compelling reason not to report rape

“I just wanted you to know I am on suicide watch. Economou fucked me and chucked me….”

12:25 on 25.12.12 “I’m now safe with my family. The ambulance people treated me for shock and luckily I had a supply of sleeping pills. Without going into specifics, Ec and I had a fling, encouraged by Ben. I woke up at his yesterday morning and he was full of adoration. Then once I’ve finished work and I am driving to my family, he calls me up and says I am uncool manipulative bitch and never contact him again”

16:38 25/12/12 “I just never want to see him again. I can only assume he was on drugs or something when he spoke to me. It is especially hard because I told him my depression story, then he told me that I was being manipulative and attention seeking. He has also de-friended me on Facebook. I don’t understand what I have done wrong???”

These are messages EDF sent to friends after she was allegedly raped.

There was CCTV directly contradicting the account she gave the police.

This was not he said/she said. There was hard electronic evidence to prove she lied to the police. The evidence was reviewed by two separate DPP'S and found to be sufficient to result in a realistic prospect of conviction.

However, the evidence in this case was strong and having considered it in light of all of our knowledge and guidance on prosecuting sexual offences and allegedly false rape claims, it is clear there was sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction for perverting the course of justice. This was evidence including text messages and CCTV footage that directly contradicted the account Ms de Freitas gave to the police. This was not assumption based on her behaviour or actions which fall into myths and stereotypes about how alleged rape victims should behave. It was on this basis that we concluded that there was a realistic prospect of proving that the rape allegation made by Ms de Freitas was false

There is an ongoing IPCC investigation into the police officers for not doing their job properly and yet the majority on this board still believe that this guy is guilty.

Absolute madness.

For those who are erring on the side of caution and who believe she shouldn't have been prosecuted because she was mentally I'll, the psychiatrist employed by her own solicitors found her fit to stand trial.

I am satisfied that prosecutors had taken the necessary steps in assuring themselves that Ms de Freitas’ mental health had been properly considered. This was in the form of a very detailed report by a consultant forensic psychiatrist instructed by Ms de Freitas’ legal team, who also took into account the views of Ms de Freitas’ consultant psychiatrist. That medical assessment was clear. The doctor instructed by Ms de Freitas’ legal representative recommended that she was aware of the implications of making a false allegation, as she was alleged to have done, and was fit to stand trial. We do not take on these kinds of prosecutions lightly, but the medical evidence provided to us could not justify dropping such a serious case. No further representations were made to us as to Ms de Freitas’ health, which would of course have been carefully considered.

Not that any of this matters of course. Who needs solicitors, evidence and psych reports when you've got Buzzfeed?

4th rule of feminism again eh?

By the way the reporting and subsequent deletion of my previous posts is pretty ironic given the constant wailing on here of "feminists are being silenced"

19th rule of feminism. Freedom of speech is only important if it's the right speech. Fucking hypocrites.

Where on Earth could you possibly get that information from bewilderness?

Usually when the accused rapist can prove they were elsewhere it is a case of stranger rape and mistaken identity on the part of the victim looking at pictures, days or weeks after the crime.

AE is no victim. He had the opportunity to walk away anonymously when the police decided not to charge him with rape. It was after that that he decided to bring a private prosecution against Eleanor, and he outed himself by contacting the press (the Mail on Sunday) and asking them to do a story on him as the man Eleanor accused. It’s not like Eleanor or anyone else outed him. And instead of walking away, he brought a prosecution against her, then after she killed herself he bought the domain name “eleanordefreitas.com” and he brought a libel lawsuit against Eleanor’s father. He has done more to harm his own reputation than anyone else ever did. If I had the audacity to bring a prosecution against someone and she then killed herself, I would be devastated by that and would extend my condolences to the family. I would probably also feel guilty for the rest of my life.

Why are you so convinced the accusation was false?

The Buzzfeed article quoted Professor Lisa Avalos, a law professor who has been writing about this issue for a few years. She has had access to the legal documents in a wide range of these types of cases and by studying the documents has reached the conclusion that the CPS has often charged actual rape victims with false reporting after failing to properly investigate their cases. Her articles say that they are charging actual rape complainants with false reporting without any actual evidence that the women have lied.

Links to her work below. She includes quotes from Eleanor’s interview with the police, which shed a lot of light on why Prof. Avalos reaches the conclusions that she does.

The Chilling Effect: The Politics of Charging Rape Complainants with False Reporting:
brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/blr/vol83/iss3/1/
(discusses Eleanor de Freitas case)

Policing Rape Complainants: When Reporting Rape Becomes a Crime:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2973404
(discusses Eleanor de Freitas and Rhiannon Brooker cases and others)

Prosecuting Rape Victims While Rapists Run Free: The Consequences of Police Failure to Investigate Sex Crimes in Britain and the United States:
repository.law.umich.edu/mjgl/vol23/iss1/1/
(discusses Gail Sherwood, Layla Ibrahim, and other cases)

There are compelling reasons not to prosecute false (even malicious) rape reports, and largely we don't. Less than 1 in 4 of the cases referred to the CPS (so where the police think there's enough evidence to prosecute) are brought to trail. The total number of cases referred is about 8% of all rape complaints to the police, total prosecutions 2%. If memory serves about 15% of complaints are referred for prosecution for rape, and the CPS goes ahead with about two thirds.

(All this from the compilations of police commissioners reports BTW, which came out a couple of years ago. Damned if I can find a link though).

All other complaints, where there is not enough evidence, just disappear or are 'no-crimed'.

I really don't think anyone takes the decision to prosecute a vulnerable woman for perjury lightly,

But what about when there is evidence a woman has lied? Surely she should be prosecuted?
I’m not talking one word against the other cases. I mean the rare cases when she says it happened at this date at this time and he can prove he was somewhere completely different (eg CCTV).

AFAIK the mahogany bellend hasn't been accused of rape. He seems to have wandering hands in most of the allegations.

Unfortunately, that mahogany bellend in the White House is proof that allegations (false or true) do not harm men’s reputations.

If I was traumatised and couldn’t remember an exact date but you pushed and insisted that you needed one so I gave you one I thought could be the right one, but it wasn’t, am I a liar who fabricates evidence?

Nobody is expected to have total recall - in particular people often do not remember dates way back in the past. The Courts certainly recognise this obvious fact. I wouldn't have expected an investigating officer to have 'insisted' upon a date. However, the more recent an event, the more a witness is likely to be able to recall it. Also, witness statements have a narrative to them containing events that are a source of collaborative evidence.

The Ulster case showed you could have internal injuries and be pouring with blood and it can still be interpreted as consensual

You may well be right - however, the following snippett was taken from the Irish Times

Overall the medical evidence was of little benefit to jurors one way or the other. Both doctors agreed the injuries did not prove penile penetration or a lack of consent.

There were two doctors, one instructed by the prosecution and the other for the defense.

If you sustained grievous bodily harm as a result of a rape, then I think the Crown would have a pretty strong case with which to prosecute.

Because of the pornificarion of culture Internal injuries that would be are GBH are seen as just rough sex. So what would have help in a rape case before holds less weight.

If I was raped I would get the DNA material evidence collected but ask not
To proceed. I think the only way to Get a conviction if there is any element of doubt is if someone else is also proceeding. Or I would aim for gbh. Gbh seems to have a better conviction rate. No way would I go through the truma of a rape trial.

I think most women have had the experience of feeling uneasy on their own in an elevator with a man. I doubt many men have had that.

I would rather that my son was falsely accused of rape than my daughter was actually raped.

@GoldenWonderwall

it’s easier to say I’m a liar (as there is evidence of what I said) than it is to prove your a rapist

...and that then your evidence is flatly contradicted by other evidence - as in the Brooker case, where there was independent evidence that her ex- was elsewhere at the time she alleged - according to this Guardian report (not a big fan of newspaper reporting, but I wasn't at the trial and the appeal against sentence isn't available on BAILII)

it is about men being frightened of taking an elevator alone with a woman

If you google "elevatorgate" you will discover that many men think it their absolute right to follow a woman into an elevator at 4am and invite her to their room.
You have the who is afraid of being alone with who in the elevator backwards.
If men were taught to extend the same common courtesy and respect to strange women that they do to strange men there would be a great deal less living in fear all around.

she could end up in prison herself if someone decides she’s untruthful

....like a jury ?

iloveirnbru I've not defamed anyone. She's dead, she can't be defamed.

Crowing about a young person's suicide because it means you can't get into trouble for saying foul things about them.

I'm quite old and jaded but even by internet standards, that is off the scale.

Economou is a shit stain on humanity. Psychopaths like him are the evil dangerous ones who belong in prison, but corruption means they won't, but vulnerable people will.
I absolutely believe he did something wrong. One of the symptoms of a bipolar high is hypersexuality. He at best took advantage of a clearly unwell young woman.
I would not report it if I was raped. Or any crime against me. Police think I am evil criminal scum.I was criminalised when really unwell. Record and mh issues, I'd be destroyed. 😢 RIP Eleanor.

TransExclusionaryMRA Mon 02-Jul-18 02:08:23
Actually fuck it I happen to believe Ched Evans IS a rapist, I’ll say it and he is welcome to take my ass to court with shiny big bells on.

You're the least "MRA" MRA I've ever come across I agree with the above - and as a pp said, my opinion was formed on what the man himself said in court.

Racecardriver - don't be worried for your sons. Statistically they are more likely to be raped by another man than to be falsely accused of rape. If they were to either be falsely accused of rape, or god forbid commit rape (after all, every rapist is someone's son) then they are overwhelmingly likely to get away with it. Only 6% are convicted.

@metrorider no, it's not as simple as finding it harder to get laid. It is about make teachers being frightened on being alone in a room with a female pupil, it is about men being frightened of taking an elevator alone with a woman, it is about men having to be worried that their wife or their girlfriend might ruin their life after an argument. Just because it is difficult for us doesn't make it right to make things difficult to men. God knows there are provably men out there who think like you (so because they live in fear of getting reported falsely women should be afraid of making reports lest they are no bekueved). Grow up. Instead of making things worse for men in retaliation we should be trying to make life better for everyone. It's people like you that make me anxious for me sons.