Why has the Tory minister arrested for rape not been named?

However, anonymity is different. There is no right for defendants to remain anonymous as a general rule. This is for a number of reasons.

(1) The presumption in this country is that justice should be seen to be done in public to ensure everyone's right to a fair trial. (In fact, the one area which has abandoned this - the family courst - is the one with the biggest question marks over it in terms of fairness.)

(2) It gives a chance for other victims to come forward (e.g. the Worboys case).

(3) By the same token, it can also help the accused, if for instance, someone sees his name in the paper and thinks "but he was with me the night this is meant to have happened" and comes forward with an alibi.

I suspect the reason his name is being withheld is because in this instance it would uniquely identify the woman who brought the accusation (and victims are given anonymity in rape trials).

Because he may be innocent?

@jessstan2

Vera Baird (Victims' Commissioner) described it that way last week, after it emerged that only 3% of rape complaints result in charges being issued. (That's not even going as far as asking how many result in convictions - just how many actually result in a man being charged!)
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/13/rape-decriminalised-due-catastrophic-decline-prosecutions-says/
www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jul/14/we-are-facing-the-decriminalisation-of-warns-victims-commissioner

De jure, it remains a crime. De facto, if a man is that way inclined, he knows that in reality he can rape away to his heart's content with only a vanishingly small chance of ever being caught, charged and found guilty.

I hadn't heard of rape being 'virtually decriminalised'. How can it be?

I too hope there will be no cover up, it's far too serious for anything like that. Surely the police will do their utmost to investigate, they must have had some suspicions to have arrested the man in the first place.

Oh well, we'll find out sooner or later.

Why can people not be content to wait until the police have charged the man? It won't be that long.
They might not charge him so we will never know then.
Rape is "virtually decriminalised" as we heard last week. And the standards of duty of care to employees are different to "guilty beyond all reasonable doubt" as applies in a trial.
I really hope this doesn't end up being a cover up for some powerful man

Twitter makes a mockery of anonymity for high profile accused people these days anyway.

Why can people not be content to wait until the police have charged the man? It won't be that long.

I'd bloody want to know if it were my MP (who is one of the limited number who definitely does fit the criteria given so far).
However he is a total trombone with dodginess as long as my arm and people still vote for him so maybe I'm in the minority.

Unless someone is suspected of being a serial rapist, always on the prowl looking for victims, I don't see how it is in the public interest to name the accused. I don't particularly want to know who it is but we'll find out soon enough if he is charged.

Jess Phillip's has tweeted about this. Another factor is that the victim is possibly having to face him day in and day out.
It's pretty common for suspects to be suspended during investigations, it doesn't and shouldn't presuppose guilt.

I think after watching the hell the girl in the Ulster rape trial went through, anonymity in rape trials until conviction should be considered. Clearly something has to change in our appalling rape conviction stats.

That case was the one that rammed it home for me how much so many men, especially sports mad ones, hate women.

I'm no expert but I think what you are suggesting is the same as "misconduct in public office"
www.google.com/amp/s/thesecretbarrister.com/2019/07/03/boris-johnson-and-misconduct-in-public-office-8-things-you-should-probably-know/amp/
The problem, of course, is that the MP involved is not named. But it might be possible to pursue him under misconduct even if his name isn't in the public arena

I also think its disgusting for the Conservatives not to say what action they are taking..

I think based on various surprising events earlier this year that it isn't the person being commonly named on twitter

Oh dear.

A parent = apparent.

🙄

If convicted, sooner or later whoever it is will become a parent as there would have to be a by election.

However, that is beside the point. At the moment, there are a number of good reasons not to name whoever it is, none of which are to do with protecting him.

@Siablue I don't think Jacon Rees-Mogg is the Tory whip is he? He's the leader of the commons. The Tory whip is Mark Spencer.

If he does anything then it makes his victim identifiable.

She is absolutely entitled to lifelong anonymity.

The protection of the identity of victims in sexual violence cases is paramount.

If she does not voluntarily choose to relinquish her right to anonymity, then anyone who publishes information on the perpetrator (whose identity also identifies her) is commuting a crime, because they have breached her right to be anonymous

Do you think it will help or hinder victims if it became permissible to publish information on the criminal - including your relationship to him - such that your identity was completely public?

Do you want the upholding of the rights of the victim to be paramount?

The papers have really stuffed thus one up already. It is possible that he can never be legally named, even after prosecution, because that also takes away the right of the victim to anonymity.

Secret Barrister is good on this sort of thing, btw

A former deputy chief whip says he should volunteer to give up the whip while the investigation is ongoing. This is what other MPs accused of wrongdoing have done in the past (including ones subsequently cleared on all charges, it's not a tacit admission of guilt)

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mp-arrested-on-suspicion-of-rape-should-give-up-whip-voluntarily-says-anne-milton-cdkvfstww?shareToken=12752702ca5cbdeff7e7db4c116c8a0c

I saw a name on a friends Facebook, v interested to see if it is the same one people on this thread know.

I was aware of him from following brexit coverage way back when that was the biggest tory party fuck up. Judging a book by its cover I wasn't remotely surprised, not that I'm claiming that means anything obviously...

I hope the little toad is convicted and receives an appropriate sentence.

I'm sadly, not astonished. Sometimes we are correct to judge books by their covers.

He has been arrested for raping a member of his staff so the victim would be outed too which is incredibly unfair.

I do think the fact that the Tory Whip (the lovely Jacob Rhys-Mogg- yes I am being ironic here) has done nothing. Contrast this to the treatment of poor Rosie Duffield where she has a massive pile on and campaign to chuck her out of the Labour Party.