"MCP" <gf010w5035@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:HlTxj.60291$jH4.34416@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7265307.stm
>
> By Andrea Rose
> Producer, Cry Rape, 1Xtra
>
>
> False allegations of rape may make for gripping headlines in the
> newspapers,
> but they can also ruin the lives of those men who've been accused
despite
> being innocent.
>
> At the age of 19, Ben Guerin had his life ripped apart by one
allegation.
>
> Three years after he'd had a ***ual encounter with a girl from school he
> was
> arrested for assault, rape and paedophilia.
Three years? Would anyone believe someone who claimed after 3 years that
she
had been mugged? People who are really assaulted call the police at once.
>
> The girl claimed they had met at a party when she was just 15 and that
the
> walk home afterwards had resulted in a violent assault.
>
> But witnesses who had been with the couple came forward on Ben's behalf
> and
> inaccuracies were found in the girl's story. The charges were dropped
and
> instead the girl was eventually sentenced to a year for perverting the
> course of justice.
I'm glad something was done to her but did she really serve a year at a
real prison.
>
> According to Home Office research, between 3% and 9% of all re****ts of
> rape
> are found to be false.
For rape it's actually more like 95%.
Yet the lives of those men accused are often
> devastated. Some even commit suicide,
I'm always surprised that they don't kill the girl and the prosecutor
first
if they intend to kill themselves. I can assure you that the false
accusations will go way down and it will have a chilling effect on all
false
allegations.
so terrible is the stigma of being
> charged with ***ual assault - even if subsequently cleared.
>
> It's an issue that particularly affects young people, with those aged 16
> and
> 25 making up both the largest group of victims and the accused.
>
> Jason, who is now 18, was also the victim of a false allegation. After
> wasting over a year of police time, as well as causing distress both to
> Jason and his family, the girl retracted her statement in court. Later
it
> came to light that she had made three false allegations previously.
This is why the name of the accuser should be public information as it is
in
every other crime. But at any rate, the police should have had her name on
file and been very sceptical of anything she said and really investigated
carefully.
>
> Student calls
>
> Margaret Gardener, the director of the False Allegations Sup****t
> Organisation (Faso) receives over a thousand calls each year from men
> looking for help and advice.
>
> "We are beginning to get a lot of university students phoning us," she
> says.
> "One of the scenarios is going to the pub and then suddenly finding the
> morning after you've had a boozy night out and you've been with
somebody,
> that you get a phone-call from the police because an allegation of rape
> has
> been made."
>
> The impact of an allegation can extend far beyond the legal
ramifications.
> Gardener works with men and their families to help them deal with the
> ostracism they often face within their communities, even long after the
> event.
>
> In Jason's case, his neighbour asked to be moved to another flat due to
> concern about the accused man's proximity to his daughters. For Ben, his
> apprentice****p as a plumber was terminated and he faced widespread
> suspicion
> from people he knew.
>
> "My door became blacklisted," says Ben. "People would rather avoid me
than
> speak to me, they literally took her word. My dad didn't take it too
well
> either. He had doubts in what I was saying so that created problems with
> my
> home life.
>
> "It wasn't like I was convicted for it. I think some people still like
to
> disbelieve me. They definitely regard me as the guilty person."
>
> Ben also believes the police assumed he was guilty from the start. But
> Dave
> Gee from the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) maintains that
> officers seek to remain even-handed when dealing with rape.
>
> Complainants' anonymity
>
> "In most cases it's one word against the other," he says. "It's very
> difficult not only to convict and prosecute, but in most cases difficult
> to
> even establish whether an offence has happened at all.
According to the FBI, in 10% of rape accusations the female has never met
the man. She just points to someone at random and accuses him of rape.
>
> "There cannot be an assumption that all alleged offenders are guilty. We
> have more to do with victims but that should not translate into
demonising
> male accused people."
>
> But an unfounded charge remains on someone's Criminal Record Bureau
(CRB)
> file permanently, which can affect future job prospects.
In the US these things can be expunged which means that in contemplation
of
law it never happened.
>
> Complainants are granted total anonymity on first re****ting a rape.
> According to the 1976 ***ual Offences Act, it is a criminal offence for
> the
> media to reveal a victim's identity or any other information that might
> lead
> to them being identified.
But private citizens can do anything they please, especially anonymously
over the net ;)
>
> If they are charged with an offence such as perverting the course of
> justice
> or perjury in relation to their complaint they can then be named.
>
> But there is no protection for those falsely accused of committing an
> assault. Whilst Ben's name found its way into the local newspapers,
Jason,
> as a 16-year-old, narrowly escaped the media glare.
>
> Conviction rate
>
> There are those who believe that when it comes to rape allegations, men
do
> not deserve any protection.
>
> Louise - not her real name - is a volunteer for the organisation, Women
> Against Rape (War). Three years ago she was the victim of a ***ual
attack,
> but found herself disbelieved and subsequently charged for making a
false
> rape claim. The case against her was later dropped.
Boo hoo
>
> "The whole thing was flung onto me. If I was going to lie surely I would
> have gone with some crazy story. I just told the police what had
happened.
> Had I known what I was going to go through I would have had to think
twice
> about re****ting it."
Think thrice. Even if she was raped and didn't suffer any physical damage
she should just forget it. Most likely she put herself in a position to be
raped either by drinking or sending the wrong signals.
>
> With only 6% of ***ual assaults resulting in conviction and according to
> some research, as many as 91% of rapes unre****ted,
If something is unre****ted then these statistics are complete fantasy.
Vernon Coaker from the
> Home Office is adamant the focus needs to remain on victims rather than
> those who've been accused.
>
> "There have been some high-profile cases highlighted by the media where
> one
> or two false allegations have been made," he says.
>
> "But we shouldn't be deflected from the fact that the real issue in
> respect
> to ***ual violence is underre****ting
It's actually over re****ting. Cases of a stranger raping a female are
rare.
All other cases are generally a misunderstanding or the product of a
female's deluded mind.
and to ensure the conviction rate is
> improved. That is the thrust of government policy."
>
>
>
|
