Peer names 'serial liar' whose rape claims sent an innocent man to jail

[GhoulsToo]

story

Do you think naming women who falsely accuse men of rape would stop genuine rape victims from reporting the crime?

I think if women have been proven to have completely fabricated their story then they should be named, unless you can sway me otherwise ...

Message deleted

Now this is what I call a reason to get worried.

serial rapist found not guilty over and over againhere

One man gets sent to jail falsely in how many years?

And it hits the headlines and causes a debate.

Meanwhile, has anyone counted the no of women who have been raped and the perpetrator has not been sent to jail?

Yes and that's why when there are cases like this it makes me so cross as now the focus is on people who lie about rape as opposed to those who actually are and pment are discussing repurcussions of when this woman lied instead of what they should be discussing which is better support systems for rape victims, a more supportive legal system and changing society's attitude to this crime to make it easier for a rape victim to have the courage to come forward and report it. I am one of the awful rape statistics and never reported because of how horrendous it is trying to report it and it really does anger me when someone takes rape as lightly as to lie about it. All I am saying is that I htink people totally underestimate the damage something like this has on the bigger picture and why should this woman be protected and treated as a victim when she quite clearly is not. I am genuinely sorry if I have offended anybody, it was never my intention its just a subject that touches a nerve.

I agree and identify with Counto10 totally.

All crimes happen more than they should.

I think the issue with rape being reported is more to do with the issue of how society/police etc deems rape/assault and what actually constitutes it. We all know what the law says, but its changing peoples opinions accordingly.

It was only 20-30 years ago that police wouldnt get involved in DV - full stop. Was deemed a "private matter" more often than not. Rape and assault suffers a similar thing IMO. People will always look at the reasons and circumstances surrounding the crime (dont like to think it happens so easily/often without a damned good reason...), rather than simply look at the crime itself.

Message deleted

That is true countto10 - and fwiw - i feel the same. BUT it is such a small aspect of the problem (of rape not being reported) that I dont feel that it is fair to highlight when it does come up. For exactly the same reasons. It perpetuates one of the many myths surrounding this crime.

Sorrell - how did you find that case? Would be interested to know if the new "double jeopardy" laws would apply to those cases now....?

depends on WHY she lied

ie. malicious to get a man in trouble

to protect a man she loved/was abusing her/being blackmailed

was mentally ill

did it in error ie communication breakdown

there are quite a few reasons.

women who maliciously do it and get named become hated by men, and by other women. It seemsan odd thing to do unless you are ill

An ex boyfriend of mine was accused of rape while we were together, it went to crown court but was thrown out due to lack of evidence, took months and months to get to court, we had to move cos of threats to him it was an absolute nightmare and ultimately it played a big part in us breaking up and I would have loved to have seen her made accountable for what she had done.

I have been raped and never reported it, never told anyone till years later cos i was ashamed, I didnt want people knowing that had happened to me.

So as angry as i was with her and as much as id have liked to see her pay for what she'd done and the damage she was doing to every woman who genuinely has been raped I have to agree that to name and shame or prosecute people like her is likely to do more harm than good for all the reasons stated already. If there was a way to be assured that it were only women making false claims and it prevented other women making false claims then that would be fantastic and would be a great help to those brave enough to genuinely report rape but as it stands now all i see is that even more would be scared out of reporting rapes and the whole situation would get even worse.

Sorry if this isnt the most eloquently phrased post, im not really thinking on a very clear head about this, but hopefully its clear enough to get my meaning accross

Its perfectly clear pesha, dont worry

Surely the reason we have a court process is to weed out false accusation - that is one of the purposes of a justice system. People make allegations for all sorts of reasons whether that be malice, psychological or mental illness etc etc and it is rare to prosecute for perjury in any instance - ocassionally people are imprisoned for falsley reporting a crime but generally the court makes a judgement on the basis of the mitigating/aggrevating factors. It is often impossible to make an absolute judgement as to whether someone has purposefully lied when reporting a crime if it has managed to get to court and, as with hanging, you wouldn't want to make a mistake - would there really be any point to naming and shaming if there was even a slim chance a woman who had not lied but had not had her case prosecuted was made public property? It has taken years to get to the stage where rape victims are not named in court for resons of protection, surely this would only be a step backwards...(I am so sorry for any terrible spelling or waffling, it is late!!!)