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?

mme are you following victoria derbyshire (@vicderbyshire) she is quite responsive - has responded to some of my tweets in the past and she interviewed the parents of Jane clough this week and was tweeting about that.

Perhaps if we could get her to get the parents/friend/someone who is supporting this woman on her programme?

Smallwhitecat
Yes, you are right.

We must focus on the fact that the decision to prosecute was wrong, and the sentencing too harsh. That the mitigating circumstances should be taken into consideration.

Wannabe
No, I wasn't but I am now. Have asked her about plans to cover the story.

Ok, got to go and clean my house. Visitors arriving tonight and I wanted to start cleaning an hour ago.

I also agree with swc that the focus should be on her rather than the husband.

if you pm me your twitter username I'll follow you so I can retweet your tweets

WannaBe
I am MmeLindor on there, no secret.

WannaBe
Just looked, the Radio5live program about Jane Clough is still online, I missed it but will have a listen later. School run first.

That's right. This is going to be scary to everyone who is afraid of their rapist. Which is to say - everyone.

Take advantage of the hashtag #twitterjoketrial being used a lot today and get this travesty out there. I tweeted:

Perhaps all the people angry at #twitterjoketrial can take an interest in rape victim sent to jail? bit.ly/cr3pJP

Please do the same.

pcbloggs.blogspot.com/2010/11/back-to-front-justice.html

Good blog post by a police officer which says

'The implicit assumption within Judge John Rogers' eight month jail sentence for the woman is that she WAS a genuine victim of rape and was therefore a dirty liar for retracting her allegations.'

CPS response today:

We are acutely aware of the difficulties faced by victims in
reporting rape and work hard to support complainants in giving their
best evidence at trial. This case was extremely unusual in that the
complainant actively worked to derail the t...rial, 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.

earwicga
Not sure if it will help today, there are so many posts about the twitterjoketrial. Think it may get lost. But worth a try.

I've had it retweeted a lot, including by people with a high number of followers.

Really good blog post here: emanix.livejournal.com/22996.html

Have seen that, Earwigca. Good work.

Did you see that the first appeal has been rejected? Now goes to Court of Appeal.

I have started using #rapeinjustice on my tweets.

Can any legal bods explain the appeal process? Why was this seen as a rare legal move?

[http://toomuchtosayformyself.com/2010/11/13/big-john/ have you seen this]] about sentence the same judge gave for possessing child pornography and DV?

ooops, try again

MmeLindt - can I use your letter to send on to my MP? It so good anything I'd write would just pale into insignificance!

Anastasia
Great link, thanks.

TruthSweet
Of course you can use my letter. You might like to add something from the blog that Anastasia posted.

Ok, not had time over the weekend but will have a look around twitter and post any other links I find.

I want to help, will read through the thread properly later and will add my support to whatever you are doing.

Hello, I had a reply to my complaint to the chief crown prosecutor (Iwan Jenkins, Chief Crown Prosecutor, CPS Dyfed Powys, Tel:- 01267 242108, email via [email protected] if anyone else wants to try).

"Thank you for your e-mail of the 14 November, 2010, and I note what you say therein.

I would like to reassure you that Dyfed Powys Crown Prosecution Service takes issues surrounding sexual offences, domestic violence and abuse of vulnerable and intimidated individuals very seriously.

Dyfed Powys heads the way in England and Wales with a number of rape cases that it prosecutes in proportion to the total number of cases it prosecutes in the Crown Court. A substantial amount of time and effort has been invested both internally and with the Police to ensure that investigations and prosecutions are conducted thoroughly and professionally with specific appropriate care being given to complainants.

"I appreciate that this case, on the face of it, provides some concerning headlines. Currently, I understand an appeal is being considered and, therefore, it would be inappropriate for me to comment upon the details of the case in any way.

"I am currently addressing the issues in this matter with the Police and, if there are issues or lessons to be learnt from the prosecution, I will actively take these forward.

"I am grateful to you for your time in providing this feedback to us and it is always the case that such comments are considered seriously and with other Prosecutors so that the public?s view informs the decision making of our Service."

Have written to my MP by the way - he was previously very helpful when I contacted him about a baby who had been starved of formula milk in Yarl's Wood, even though it's not in his constituency, so I hope he will take up this case.