FFS. Woman jailed for 8mths after retracting rape accusation

[MmeLindt]

here

The woman retracted her claims after being bullied by her husband and family.

She was then prosecuted for falsely retracting claim.

WTF?

I have tweeted about this.

Please, if you tweet, or are on FB try to get this message out. There is so little on the web about it.

Unbelievable stuff. 4 young children. Police called many times before over violence and have taken statements from her children, he had a court order against him not to go near her. And she's in prison?

It's mind-boggling isn't it?

All charges against the husband have been dropped, the CPS decided not to go ahead with previous case against him for breaking into her house and attacking her, something her child witnessed.

This seems all cock-eyed.

Who are victim support?

The prosecutors and the judge should be fucking ashamed of themselves. I am so angry on her behalf. How could they do this to her? To her boys?

Where is the outcry? There was more distress about the bloody cat bin woman than this.

I blogged about this on Monday here and will update it today.

I hope that her family are able to look after her children. Or I suppose her ex might be looking after them (brilliant).

Poor kids.

Another blog here

Anyone have contacts to women's help groups or rape victims groups? Would be interesting to see if there is any kind of protest going on.

Am still a bit confused as from what I recall a few yrs ago the CPS/ police changed their stance on DV as so many victims refused to go through with pressing charges for the same reasons as this woman.
If I am correct they can prosecute a perp without the victims co-operation. Seems ridiculous that they can apply one theory to physical violence but not sexual violence.

Oh my fucking good lord - that article. They have dropped the charges against him?

Every time I think I have heard the worst thing possible about how our "justice [if you have a cock]" system treats women, someone even more chilling comes along.

What are we going to do? What?

Elephants
Are you on Twitter? I have written the two blog posts, and will contact as many journo types that I can think of. We only need a couple of good Women's Rights activists to get the ball rolling, I think.

Sadly there seems to be little interest.

Sadly not. Have you tried contacting any feminist blogs: the Curvature, F-Word, Shakesville etc?

in my previous post it should have been "something" more chilling, but to be honest there is something extremely chilling about the judge who made this decision.

Will check them out. Will start a thread in Feminism, I don't know many blogs etc.

Yes, UKFeminista & Fawcett Society. I'll check my links... there is an organisation that creates online petitions, which are easy and quick to sign for individuals and the organisation represents matters of injustice (like this).

To be continued....

Very sad story indeed. MME, great letter.

Blogs already writing about it... toomuchtosayformyself.com/2010/11/08/statement-from-rape-crisis-on-the-false-retraction-story/

Feel free to follow Cath Elliott (also writes on Guardian Blog) on twitter @CathElliott
... unapologetic feminist and blogger

From Cath Elliott's blog: toomuchtosayformyself.com

QUOTE:
Plus I?ve just received the official statement on the case from Rape Crisis (England and Wales), which I wanted to highlight here. Here it is:

?Rape Crisis (England and Wales) are outraged that yet again a woman is being punished and criminalised for choosing not to pursue her case through the criminal justice system (CJS).

This flies in the face of any progress that has been made in the last few years around how the CJS responds to women who have been raped.

We are shocked that this woman has received a custodial sentence and by the length of it. It highlights a complete lack of understanding of the complexity and reality of women?s experience of violence in their lives.

The act of making a false retraction is not an offence in its own right and we are calling for her immediate release and for an investigation into how this shocking situation has arisen.?

I really hope Rape Crisis and the other women?s organisations who have spoken out for this poor woman are successful and that she gets released soon. I also hope the judge ends up facing some kind of disciplinary action for their appalling decision.
QUOTE close.

Here we go... You can contact the National Council for Civil Liberties.

According to website: "We promote the values of individual human dignity, equal treatment and fairness as the foundations of a democratic society"

Twitter: @libertyhq
Website: www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/about/index.php

Thanks, GENN, very helpful. I have C&P your posts onto the other thread to keep everything together.

I've submitted an enquiry with the National Council for Civil Liberties. I encourage everyone to do so too... It can only help to get attention.

Here's the link: www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/contact-us.php

I will do firstthing tommorrow Genn

I think if they decided to prosecute him then it wouldn't be successful as the defence lawyers would tear her and the prosecution apart. She has already been convicted of perverting the course of justice so she could easily be painted as an unreliable witness and a liar so the CPS probably sees no point in pursuing a prosecution.

"Oh my fucking good lord - that article. They have dropped the charges against him?"

In fairness, as appalling as it seems, what choice did your state prosecution have? (sorry can't remember the name of the English state prosecutors).
They would have virtually no chance of obtaining a conviction in this case. They have to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that a rape occurred when the defence barrister would be able to present the statement of the woman contradicting her orignal statement and claiming that no rape had taken place. Right there is a pretty clear indication that a jury would find reasonable doubt.

I think any prosecutor worth their salt could make a convincing case that this woman was living in terror of her husband. Presumably this happens with e.g. gang conflict where pressure is put on witnesses?

Plus he breached the control order - that should be criminal in itself.

Most gang conflict cases (in ireland anyway) which have involved witness intimidation have ended in acquitals. The Liam Keane murder trial was a prime example with the judge complaining of the witnesses "collective amnesia".

Fwiw I doubt even the best prosecutor, let alone one merely worth their salt, could get a conviction. Rape convictions are already notoriously hard to acquire (save for ones with damning physical eveidence,which seeing as this case was inter-spousal it is unlikely such evidence existed.).
A defence barrister would merely have to produce the contradicting statements and say to the jury "She has given a statment saying that no rape occured, that in itself is proof of reasonable doubt. She has said in her own words that no rape occured, how can you now be
certain that she is telling the truth?"

Where as the prosecutor will only have her word to rely on that she was intimidated into making the statement, when her word has already been called into question throughout the trial and they have a statement from her contradicting her own story as given to the police. I have no doubt in my own mind that she was raped and intimidated but I don't think it's a simple case of "any prosecutor worth their salt" being able to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that a rape has taken place when the defence can produce a statement from the victim claiming the contrary and it is already difficult enough to procure a rape conviction when there is no such contradicting statement.

I suppose I am thinking that there is probably a lot of evidence from witnesses etc that she was bullied and intimidated by her husband.

That's rubbish about the gang cases as well.

mayorquimby,
she was jailed because they knew that she was lying when she said he hadn't raped her.

The can't have it both ways.