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

[caroldecker]

Just because he was accused of rape does not necessarily make the private prosecution harassment

[BobbyDarin]

I would expect that he will be named in the next few days.

[cadno]

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

They certainly tried to bring a private prosecution, although I'm not sure what happened at the end to it - I don't recall the CPS taking it over (and one of the reasons they do take one over is so that they can quickly drop it) but whatever stage it reached, the defendants were not found guilty AND it lead to a change in the law re: double jeopardy, to allow them to be tried again on the grounds of compelling new evidence.

*

In this particular case, the CPS should be urgently reviewing its policy on mentally ill defendants.

[OddFodd]

Why would someone who was never charged and has never been publicly named seek prosecution unless it's to intimidate and bully the witness?

[FloraFox]

The potential for harassment in rape cases is huge. The CPS Shoukd take over all these cases. Eleanor's father was on Today and said they welcomed the CPS taking over the case as they thought IT would be dropped.

[cadno]

Why would someone who was never charged and has never been publicly named seek prosecution unless it's to intimidate and bully the witness?

He might have felt that he wanted revenge after having been falsely accused and arrested - was he remanded in custody ?

[BobbyDarin]

The Lawrence family brought a private prosecution and it failed. That's part of the reason the double jeopardy law was introduced, to allow the CPS to prosecute a second time.

[sanfairyanne]

rich enough to pay for a private prosecution

not named in media

cps support and take over his prosecutuin

who is this man? what are his links to cps?

[BobbyDarin]

My bet is that he is a university lecturer or a student.

Also the fact he hasn't been named in this Guardian piece doesn't mean that no one knows who he is or that people in his community don't know he was accused of rape.

[PuffinsAreFicticious]

There was no evidence that she had falsely accused him. None, Zip, Nada. By the CPS's own admission.

[GinAndSonic]

I cant figure out what i want to say about this. Horrific. I feel quite sick. That poor woman and her poor family.

[PhaedraIsMyName]

How does it usually work if individuals who have been accused of rape want to clear their name?

What do you mean? What is there to clear if the Crown don't prosecute.

He could have raised a civil action for defamation. Defamation in Scotland is an odd one- the person being sued has to prove the comments weren't defamatory rather than the person who is suing proving their case..

So whilst she has to prove that she did not defame him she only has to prove that on a balance of probability he raped her, rather than beyond all reasonable doubt. I assume it's the same in England. Possibly he thought he'd lose on that lower standard of proof.

[tippytap]

God this case is awful. Her poof family and I can't imagine what Eleanor must have gone through before she died.

I'm on twitter and some of the comments there (by NF of a certain inde party) and followers are unbelievable. Can't understand why anyone votes for him. Victim blaming at its best.

Is this how most people feel?

Reading all this means that i'd never report a rape.

[caroldecker]

The CPS did not say there was no evidence, there must have been otherwise they could not prosecute. The police said there was no evidence, however, according to Radio 4, they did not prosecute him because her evidence was inconsistent with other evidence.

[tippytap]

Carol,

The police did not say there was no evidence. They said there was not enough to secure a conviction, which is totally different.

As to why the cps continued with this when Eleanor never retracted her complaint is something that i hope we find out.

[PhaedraIsMyName]

For anyone who hasn't heard of it this deals with what I think may be the only successful private prosecution for rape in Scotland and possibly the UK.

Private prosecutions are very rare.

www.firmmagazine.com/when-worlds-collide/

[Everstrong]

Reading the media coverage has made me incredibly sad. As someone who reported but was told a conviction would be incredibly unlikely as several years had passed and thus there was no physical evidence, I cannot imagine then having the situation "turned round" and becoming the accused instead of the victim.

I can't bear to think of what that poor girl and her family went through. She was obviously incredibly vulnerable and didn't receive the support she needed.

The CPS have a lot of explaining to do. Why did they take on the private prosecution? Whoever raised the action must be incredibly rich/powerful/somehow linked to the CPS.

[caroldecker]

tippytap I was not clear and meant the police said there was no evidence Eleanor had lied.

[PuffinsAreFicticious]

tippytap.... There was one person in particular who was tweeting some truly awful victim blaming/rape apologist shit. I wonder if we experienced the same person? Has a party symbol as her avatar? If so, she has form and can be safely ignored.

[tippytap]

Puffin - yes. I know who you mean. Total victim blaming. Very offensive.