trial of alleged rape victim who killed herself

[chaosmonkey]

www.theguardian.com/law/2014/nov/06/call-crown-prosecutors-account-suicide-alleged-rape-victim

A young woman who said she had been raped went on to kill herself after the Crown Prosecution Service put her on trial for making up the allegation in a case originally instigated by her alleged attacker.

A bit speechless, so have just cut and paste initial para - sorry

I've done that thing of jumping in and saying too much and being the kind of poster I abhor. Sorry.

I was going to say that about "no criming" MEOD there have been loads of problems with the incorrectly no criming rapes and they were supposed to take steps to tackle it.

What was most shocking was the regional variation - this was going back a few years.

No-one minds at all Caulkhead

I mean, it was fine. You haven't done anything to be sorry about.

My emperor- it happened in one country, by someone who lives in another, and I live in a third. I've been told 1-2 years before trial due to Interpol.

Just... that poor woman. Appalling

How many victims of rape will now be scared off from reporting their attacker as a result of this?

Yes, perhaps I should have said how many more

Every message out there tells women that reporting rape is at best pointless and at worst dangerous. It's a fucking travesty

We don't know how much evidence the police looked for that she had lied. I would assume the CPS took up the case because the private investigators found evidence.
Someone said false rape claims are very low, but this is only based on a low number of cases - if the police don't or are encouraged not to persue these cases, we will never know the real number of false claims.

Yes because that should be the focus. Those nasty few women who lie. Not the 85000 women a year who don't lie and the 1000s of rapists who do lie. All the time.

The thing is, we either have a right to seek justice through private prosecution or we don't. If we do, then I don't think you can exclude one category of crime. People have sought compensation for the murder of loved ones through private prosecution when court cases have failed. Rape (and conversely false accusations of rape) are not the only serious crime tried this way.

Didn't the family of Stephen Lawrence succeed in a private prosecution against some of his killers years before a criminal prosecution was achieved?

I don't generally agree with private prosecutions but the could easily be certain cases that cannot proceed by private prosecution for public policy reasons. In this case, the lack of justice received by the the majority of rape victims and the fear of harassment of victims by private prosecutions would be a good policy reason.

I was horrified by this story too. That poor young woman. It's a shame that one can't know more details of the case. Perhaps if it were law that a man who brought a case of false accusation would lose his right to anonymity by doing so, it would discourage this kind of bullying and intimidating behaviour?

If I read the story correctly (and it seems to be a well written, non confrontational one), the police still had Ms De Frietas' rape on file. They believe she was raped, so there was no question of her having lied about the crime taking place in their minds. For the police to have done this means that she must have been compelling, what with their shit record for dealing with rape victims and everything.

MyEmpire Yes, in the case of a rape trial, the accused has no right to anonymity, and rightly so in my view. But in this case there was no trial, and he hasn't been named - why not?

He was never charged.