109 women prosecuted for false rape claims in past 5 years

[AWholeLottaNosy]

This made me so angry. The thousands of women that can't get justice for being raped due to 'lack of evidence' yet the CPS thinks it's ok to pursue these women for reporting their rape to the police. We all know how incredibly hard it is to report a rape and the facts speak for themselves, aprox 85,000 rapes a year, 5-15% are reported, of those reported rapes, only 6% get a conviction. This is a fucking travesty but it seems like it's easier to get a conviction for a false rape allegation than get a conviction for a devastating, life altering crime? Something is very wrong here...

www.theguardian.com/law/2014/dec/01/109-women-prosecuted-false-rape-allegations

Oh and last thing, false rape allegations are aprox 2% of all reported allegations, similar to other types of crime.

Link

www.theguardian.com/law/2014/dec/01/109-women-prosecuted-false-rape-allegations

Out of interest, how many men prosecuted for rape in last 5 years?

I think it's quite telling that there is a US lawyer taking part because the UK has a much worse record for dealing with incidents of 'false accusation', this despite how bloody woman unfriendly the US is!

Actually they weren't all 'false'. At least some of the women were pressured by the police to retract their allegations, and were then prosecuted.

How is that in the public interest? Did this happen under Keir Starmer?

Agreed Line.

IIRC, there was a case not so long ago, where a woman was pressured into retracting a well substantiated rape accusation by her attacker (husband??) and the police then charged her with wasting police time. This despite knowing that her accusation wasn't false, she was still tried/going to be tried for making a false accusation.

It seems that the UK is much hotter on prosecuting women who falsely accuse/retract/are forced to retract than they are on prosecuting actual rapists.

And yes, I think this was Under Keir Starmer.

There are many reasons why women don't go through with prosecuting rape, sometimes pressure from the abuser, pressure from family members, intimidation, or just feeling they can't go through with it. It's appalling that these women are at risk of then being prosecuted and what kind of message is this sending out to women and girls who have been victims of rape..?

And look what happened to fiction of the convicted rapist Ched Evans. How many identities has she had to have?

Ffs sorry

to the victim

Sorry, you're completely correct MEOD. I knew it was bullshit, just misremembered exactly what smell that bullshit had

Didn't Keir Starmer get questioned about that case on a MN web chat?

What is the solution though? Should the authorities never prosecute false rape claims?

Maybe I'm misreading some of the posts in this forum, but there seems to be the suggestion that prosecution of alleged false rape claims shouldn't happen at all?

I was thinking of something lately that I think would help with the situation is this;

Men who are accused of rape do not have the right to anonymity. So when they are accused of rape, their life is destroyed even if it turns out that they are innocent. As such, many of those who are innocent feel bitter with the whole process and that's much of the motive for a retaliatory prosecution.

But give the men anonymity; make it illegal for the press to report it or the alleged victim's family to go shouting it out in the streets, and then the impact on the man in cases where he is innocent is reduced a great deal.

Therefore, in such cases, there isn't so much of a reason to prosecute the woman in those cases where it's obvious she's lied about it. The man can get on with his life much easier than he could if he hadn't had anonymity. Not quite 'no harm done', but 'less harm done'.

What 'posts in this forum', prashad?

A friend was threatened by her rapist, who knew her, so withdrew her allegation. The next time she was raped (by a stranger) the police pretty much told her to bugger off.

Both rapists are free to rape again, and my friend has to deal with the trauma of being raped, threatened and not believed.

The OP is a good example. It's apparently a 'travesty' that women have been prosecuted for false rape claims.

What's the travesty? If a woman is suspected of making a false rape claim, this should surely be prosecuted and if she's found guilty she should be jailed, no? It seems obvious to me. The exceptions being people who are too mentally unwell to be considered criminally responsible, etc.

Lots of the posts I see express such a negative attitude towards this topic that it would suggest that people here would prefer this not be a crime at all. I won't go digging for them, because if you don't agree already then you're unlikely to ever.

I think the OP should read 'retracted rape allegations' to be honest.

For the record, I don't think that withdrawing a rape claim should automatically result in prosecution for perverting the course of justice.

But if you had a case, say, where a woman accused a specific man... and then he had a rock solid alibi (was in work, abroad, or something)... then that's a more clear cut example of a case that should be prosecuted.

I wanted to retract my rape claim and was told that it was likely I would then be prosecuted for either wasting police time or falsely claiming it happened.

I wanted to retract it because I don't want to face him again and I can't talk about it in counselling/therapy incase that affects what I think about it.

The only case like that, where I was close to the accused, the woman was very, very mentally unwell. It was in no-one's interests to prosecute or name her - not hers, or her family's, or the accused's as it happens.

The NHS let down that woman appallingly.

Sorry Caulkhead, that was to prashad.

So sorry you went through that. So fucking awful.

If it is a false rape allegation of course they should be prosecuted.
I have seen and heard what the allegations can do to a person, it is sickening and I think they should have the book thrown at them.

Nobody should be prosecuted for retraction as that is different, it isn't saying you falsely accused, but that you don't want to continue to prosecute. The two are totally different.

People suspected of committing other crimes (including murder) don't get anonymity. Why are accused rapists so special that they need it? *haven't yet seen an answer that doesn't boil down to the poor, innocent men need to be protected from all the lying women

My empire- I see a counsellor at the rape and sexual violence place and she won't let me talk about it, incase that causes problems in court. We can only talk about how it has affected me since.