Woman jailed for ten years for false rape accusations

[OlennasWimple]

Can we discuss this case? It's interesting for lots of reasons, including that the sentence she has been given for making multiple false accusations is over three times the length that one of the men who was falsely accused was given for actual rape

In fact rape was completely legal until less than 30 years ago.

Eh? This sort of fatuous comment is distinctly unhelpful

Aridane

Rape within marriage was legal until the early 1990s.

So all it takes for you to think it's rape is an accusation?

It does make you think how did he get convicted when he never raped her. Does there need to be evidence to prove he done it.

HorridHenryrule

I was wondering that. Exactly what was it that made people believe this woman, when other women are disbelieved.

I think racism was a factor.

Datun - I know that - but that wasn't what the post said!

Aridane

That's exactly what it said. The crime of rape was considered completely legal.

Unless you want to go down the road of some rapes being more criminal than others.

In fact, I think it's worse than that. Most women are raped by someone they know.

In that arena, marital rape would have constituted a quite staggering amount of crime.

EUPD isn't a mental illness

Do you want to tell the APA, or shall I?

DSM criteria for Personality Disorders.

That's exactly what it said. The crime of rape was considered completely legal.

I see what Aridane is saying. It wasn't completely legal, since people were tried, convicted and imprisoned for rape before that date.

Agree datun

There's also a huge debate within mental health that complex PTSD is the correct term for BPD. It's criteria are very similar and it's continually refused entry to the DSM as bpd covers it. But God has horrific very gendered bias, cptsd doesn't. And like pp said often involves repeatedly being raped as a young child and suffering mental health problems as a result.

deydododatdodontdeydo

I know. I'm not disagreeing.

But when you have rapists, not only raping with impunity, but being given the legal needs to do so, I find it a little hairsplitting.

Particularly in regards to this thread.

An act that many men, politicians, lawmakers, etc, didn't even consider wrong, is only now being given a value because it is suddenly punishable.

In a few short decades.

It's as though it's not really wrong, but best avoided because it's illegal.

People make false reports of crime to the police all the time, vehicle theft, assaults, DV, rape. It's actually very common.

With D.C. and rape however, reports which are malicious are rarely acted on because SMT and CPS are worried it discourages genuine victims. That's why cases like this make the news, purely because of the scale of her actions

With D.C. and rape however, reports which are malicious are rarely acted on because SMT and CPS are worried it discourages genuine victims.

Can you clarify that? Do you mean that if there is evidence that it's malicious, the person's not prosecuted?

Yep. Unless there's further aggravating factors. E.g. multiple reports, lots of hours spent on it.

Either this woman is a seriously bad person, in which case the sentence is entirely appropriate.

Or she is mentally ill, in which case she should be in a closed psychiatric unit and treated for however long it takes to make sure she is not a risk for doing this this again, which I suspect could take years.

The real problem is not her sentence (she would be out in 5 years possibly if she is in prison), but the totally inadequate sentences given to many rapists - including multiple rapists. Any rapist(s) convicted of offences on the multiple scale as she has been should face a minimum of 20 years.

I am a second-wave feminist and will stick up for women as a principle wherever I can. However, that does not lead me to even vaguely sympathising with them when they behave as appallingly as this woman has.

The CPS took over a private prosecution of Eleanor De Freitas for perverting the course of justice knowing she had bipolar disorder; hardly reluctant to act on it: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/28/prosecuting-eleanor-de-freitas-alleged-false-reports-rape

The reality is that false allegations are incredibly rare.

Rodhullstvaerial

My son's friend was accused by his girlfriend of raping her. The police got involved, but it didn't get any further. The friend maintains that reason it went no further is because it was demonstrably false.

I said that isn't necessarily the case, and that if it was demonstrably false, surely she would have been prosecuted?

It's been a common point of discussion here that you can't determine if something is a false claim, unless it's prosecuted.

So where women withdraw the allegation, it cannot be assumed that they weren't actually raped.

But perhaps not.

Xenophile

You do know that EUPD is not in the DSM but the ICD-10. The former being published by the APA, the latter being published by the WHO.

'Personality Disorder' is just that, a set of problems which affect the personality as a whole, and which are stable (as your own link states). It's not an 'illness' which involves a marked break from ones normal self.

It's stigmatising and clinically inappropriate to refer to EUPD as a 'mental illness'.

The woman in question made choices. She is repsonsible for those choices (unlike someone who is mentally ill). She may need support, but that is seperate from her culpbility.

Datun, if it is NFA'd it doesn't mean he didn't do it. He could well of but there was a lack of evidence or the victim withdrew her complaint

But by the same token a lack of a charge for PCJ/wasting police time also doesn't mean it wasn't a false accusation

Rodhullstvaerial

Ok. Thanks for that info.

It does seem that rape, whether the crime, or the accusation of, is in a class all of its own.

BPD is the variation that is in the DMS

They are mental health problems, and as such are disabilities.

gonegonegone

I'm not sure what your point is

False accusations rarely do any real harm to men

Which fucking genius wrote that?

False accusations rarely do any real harm to men. [...] Accusing someone of rape doesn't risk pregnancys (which allways risks women's lives and MH) or STD/is or PTSD or actual physical harm. [...] Words dont rip vaginas, they don't cause dissociations, they don't tie a belt round your throat and choke til unconsious, they don't leave bruises and cuts or broken bones or too much scar tissue to ever carry a child.

It's not just 'words'. A man spent three years in jail for a crime he didn't commit. Can you not even begin to imagine how psychologically damaging that could be?

It's also insulting to rape victims to suggest that 'real harm' = physical harm. Rape is rape, whether it leaves the woman battered and bruised or not. Whether it leaves her at fear of STDs and pregnancy or not (many victims are already in sexual relationships with their attacker).

Rape ruins lives. Even being convicted of rape doesn't ruin lives.

What about being falsely convicted of rape? Because that's what this case is about. It's not about a woman who was raped, it's about men who were falsely accused and (in one case) convicted of rape.