Rape victim jailed for falsely retracting accusation against a violent and abusive husband - help with campaign sought

[MmeLindt]

Can you help me spread the word about this?

I have no idea why this has not been reported more widely. Almost nothing on Twitter, no cries of outrage. Or rather, it is being reported but the general public do not want to know.

Guardian today reported that the woman has been abused for years, most recently just a couple of weeks ago.

She was jailed on Friday for perverting the course of justice. She accused him of raping her then falsely dropped the charges, saying that it was not true.

She was jailed despite the fact that he has attacked her several times in the past couple of months, for which he has not been charged.

Despite the fact that she only lied about the rape not happening because he pressured her to.

Does anyone have ideas how we can get more publicity, which blogs may be covering this?

I have also added this to my letter:

As a British citizen, I am very concerned that court cases like this will prevent other women seeking justice if they are raped. This week on Mumsnet, a majority of the women who answered the question ?Would you report a rape?? answered in the negative. This absolutely shocking thread highlights how women are being failed. Failed by the police, failed by the CPS, failed by the courts.

I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts about this,

Yours...

IIRC rape is a crime against the state (or the crown or whatever) to which the victim is a witness. Hence the fact that they were going to pursue the case even after she retracted her original statement.

But now she has reiterated that her original evidence was correct, they have the prime witness, what is stopping them?

Who are you going to send that letter too, Mme? For the blogs, if you write to them, a short paragraph that they can copy and paste (maybe an extract or paraphrase from your blog) with links to the story would probably be best.

Find your MP

Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice 2010 Kenneth Clarke - [email protected]

Minister for Women and Equalities Theresa May - [email protected]

Secretary of State for Wales Cheryl Gillan - [email protected]

I emailed the Secretaries for Justice, Women, and Wales. Plus my MP.

Will work on something for the blogs, perhaps a bit shorter.

Just C&Ping from other thread, to keep it all together.

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.
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GENNnrflk Wed 10-Nov-10 21:14:03

Blogs already writing about it... toomuchtosayformyself.com/2010/11/08/statem ent-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
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GENNnrflk Wed 10-Nov-10 20:59:51

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.

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

link

What did you say to Liberty GENN?

I kept it short. Posted the article in The Guardian and the discussion here on Mumsnet. Asked if they have a campaign for this cause as yet and if not could we start one?

What exactly does it take to qualify as a judge in the UK?

The reason I ask is, here's another recent story that appeared in the news - again, a case of a man being violent and abusive to his female partner and her finding enormous courage to press charges against him. This time, the judge released her ex-partner on bail even though he was known to be dangerous and she kept a diary saying how scared she was that he would come and kill her and so as soon as her ex is released on bail, he stalks her and then murders her on the doorstep of the hospital where she worked, stabbing her 71 times The judge claims he wasn't aware that the man had violent tendencies...

So it seems in the UK justice system, if you are a woman who has been raped and abused by your male partner, you get thrown in jail for showing any sign at all, however slight, of unreliability as a witness, whereas if you are a man who rapes and abuses and threatens to kill his partner, you get released on bail - so you can go and kill the woman who is trying to get justice for what you've done to her... honestly these two cases made me feel sick. The media is giving them both, separately, a lot of coverage but no-one is joining up the dots to show how rotten the justice system is and how biased it is against rape / abuse victims or even just women generally.

I know InMyPrime. :(

I started a thread about that case here and there was one in "in the news" as well.

It seems every time I read the news there is another case telling me in no uncertain terms that we will not be protected, by men who commit violent crimes will be given every chance to get to their victims.

Raoul Moat's ex wasn't warned about his release or given any protection although he'd promised to kill her on his release.

Jane Clough was killed by the bastard who had made her life hell, and who should have been locked up pre-trial given the evidence of his violence.

Woman in Wales jailed for being intimidated by her rapist and his family, basically.

Those three policemen from the Sapphire Unit for the love of God who are accused of sabotaging rape cases, including changing a rape victim's testimony to make it look as if she was retracting her accusation here

thread here on American website with head of CPS's email address

They also talk about the case in Texas where a cheerleader was thrown off the squad for refusing to cheer her abuser. He was not convicted of the rape, but of a minor charge so that the school wouldn't lose one of their star players.

Cause, you know, football is more important than rape.

Women against rape

Got to go out this morning and we are getting visitors this evening but I will try and find time this afternoon to get back on here and write some more emails.

I have contacted some of the bloggers mentioned, UKFeminista, Fawcett Society, MPs and Ministers.

Thanks for all you are doing on this, Mme. I'm distracted by rl tasks and I haven't been able to keep up with the thread. Have you discovered an ideal email address to fire of a quick protest email to?

Yes thank you Mme. I am going to try and write some letters later too. Great that Shakesville has picked up on it, sure others will too.

It is just an outrage, against ALL of us. If any of us were attacked tomorrow heaven forbid, wouldn't this case just be uppermost in our minds when thinking about reporting? It sounds odd to say it's a message to all of us, but it IS. It's a message to all of us that rape victims are to shut up and put up.

Thanks for starting this, I've contacted my MP.

BBC

A spokesman for the CPS at Dyfed-Powys told BBC Wales: "This case was extremely unusual in that the complainant actively worked to derail the trial, by first telling police she had made up her original evidence, and then changing her story again and saying it had been true.

"It was impossible to proceed with the case against her husband in these circumstances, and it was felt that the difficult decision to charge the complainant with perverting the course of justice was justified, particularly as substantial resources were used to investigate and prosecute the alleged rape and to provide support to the complainant."

Understandable that they were angry at her changing her statement several times, but to charge her - did they really think that was the next step?

Actually, thinking about it more.

She is getting the blame for causing "substantial resources" to be used in proceeding with the case.

She was not the one who decided to go ahead. If she had been allowed to drop the case - or been given more support to help her stand up to her abusive husband - then these resources would not have been used.

Why should the blame rest on her? Why was no one at CPS willing to say, "This is shit, she is unwilling to testify, we are never going to convict him without his wife's testimony, as much as it angers us to let this lowlife go, we have no choice".

is it worth spreading this via twitter? (twitter is a powerful medium and there are lots of well-followed people on there).

Lorraine Kelly/victoria derbyshire/this morning/all the news outlets to name but a few. I'm sure a lot of them would retweet something - I know for instance that lk does retweet a lot if asked.

Wannabe
I am on Twitter and posting a fair bit on there. Have sent queries to a few journos but no one biting.

Few other bloggers are posting on it, trying to link them and RT when I see.

We could do with a snappy # so that it is easier to coordinate.

UKFeminista replied:
@mmelindor I am hearing about some things being planned, but it's a bit difficult as details are withheld by the court. Will keep u posted

Will copy and paste your letter and forward to MP tonight.

That poor women deserved protection, not jailing. I really feel for her children having to witness all this and then lose their mum too

Also had a reply from the Secretary for Wales:

Thank you for your email to Mrs Cheryl Gillan MP, Mrs Gillan has noted your concerns and has asked me to advise you that you need to contact the Member of Parliament for the area in which you used to live.