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False rape accusation...who would you believe?
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What is meant by "personal circumstances'? Does the DPP regularly refuse to prosecute due to "personal circumstances"? I do hope my "personal circumstances" will also give me immunity. Sorry if the taxpayer ends up paying a million or two for some future "mistakes" I might make, but hey, here we are!
Of course, the DPP told the man's lawyer about the previous fake accusation when they were about to enter the nolle prosequi. My question is when did the DPP first hear about it or, more importantly, when did the Gardai realise that the complainant was the same woman who had previously admitted to making up a false rape allegation?
Eighteen months prior to making the complaint against the man, the woman had claimed she was raped by an unrelated individual. She later withdrew this allegation and admitted that it was fabricated arising out of her frustration due to her history of sexual abuse, family problems and alcohol issues.
So the prior complaint was made a year and a half earlier but the IT is remarkably vague about when she admitted this was fabricated. That is, of course, the issue on which the whole case will turn i.e. did the DPP drop the charges as soon as the woman retracted her previous complaint or did they leave an innocent man to stew in prison?
Of course, the Gardai should have realised this from Day One but maybe their magnificent, revamped PULSE system didn't throw up her name. And weren't the Gardai supposed to have a specialised unit dealing with all sexual offences? Didn't they put some tag on her file to say "fake accusation"?
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It is interesting alright. It is one thing to give a lighter sentence because of someone’s personal circumstances, it’s another not to prosecute them at all.
And of course it’s only the charge of wasting police time when perhaps a stronger category should exist for false allegations that can have such a damaging effect on an individual.
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Actors to role-play sexual assault court cases with judges
Course aims to ensure judiciary function appropriately around vulnerable people
The course, designed by the Dutch Judicial Training College, also included a participation exercise and discussion around vulnerable people in court, as well as training in “questioning and attention to personal aspects (avoiding re-traumatisation)”.
[..]
Victim support
Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, which offers support to victims during court proceedings, was invited to give an introductory talk to the eight judges.
I imagine this could possibly make things more difficult for defendants. It doesn't sound like there was any group there for those who are falsely accused to counterbalance the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre.
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The Director of Public Prosecutions has told a court in Dublin that there is no legal basis for not identifying a 35-year-old public servant charged with falsely imprisoning and sexually assaulting a woman at his workplace last year.
Judge Treasa Kelly made an order last month that the man's name or occupation were not to be published but this was challenged in court today by five media organisations including RTÉ.
https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2021/1126/1263393-court-dpp-identify-man-false-imprisonment/
I'm no lawyer, and don't follow this issue too closely, but I thought I heard something about a rule or convention that defendants should not be named in the Republic of Ireland before sexual assault cases? Or perhaps that is only rape cases?
Whatever about the specific conventions, I find it interesting that media organisations incl. RTE want to spend money on a single case like this, so they can name somebody before the trial.
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Initiatives like this have no impact on defendants. They’re intended to raise awareness of the impact of trials and court procedures on the victims of rape and sexual assault. Sexual offences and false allegations shouldn’t be thought of as being the flip side of each other as though they are comparable or equatable - they’re not even similar types of offences. To the best of my knowledge, there isn’t any support group for people who have been falsely accused of committing a criminal offence, so that may go some way towards explaining why there is no “counterbalance” in a program which aims to advocate for the victims of rape and sexual assault cases and how they are treated by the Courts.
Whether these programs have any impact at all, is another issue entirely - scripted enactments rarely reflect the reality of how these cases actually dealt with by the Courts, such as in this particular example -
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It’s more to do with reporting restrictions depending upon the circumstances in the case, but the restriction on naming of the accused applies in cases of rape and aggravated sexual assault, but doesn’t apply in cases of sexual assault, and what’s happening in this case is that the Judge decided to impose reporting restrictions, which RTÉ and media organisations are right to point out there is no legal basis for doing so. They’re spending money on challenging the imposition of reporting restrictions in this particular case, because normally they wouldn’t be under such restrictions -
It seems clear that a trial judge is not entitled to impose a restriction on the reporting of an accused person’s name solely in order to protect that person’s right to privacy. The matter arose for consideration in Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd v Judge Anderson where the respondent District Court judge had made an order restricting the publication of the identity of a person charged with possessing child pornography. He later refused a press application to lift the restriction. His order was successfully challenged by way of judicial review proceedings brought by the applicant newspaper group. As the High Court (Clarke J.) noted, regard had to be had first and foremost to Article 34.1 of the Constitution which requires that, save in such special and limited cases as may be prescribed by law, justice shall be administered in public. Further, having regard to earlier authorities, notably Irish Times v Ireland, the Court held that any restrictions on the reporting of court proceedings are governed by the following principles:
(1) An order restricting such reporting can be made only where there is an express legislative provision to that effect, and
(2) In the event that the relevant legislative provision contains a discretion, the court must be satisfied that to have the case heard in public would fall short of doing justice; or
(3) In the event that there is no express legislative provision the court must be satisfied that:
a. There is a real risk of an unfair trial if the order is not made, and
b. The damage which would result from not making the order would not be capable of being remedied by the trial judge either by appropriate directions to the jury or otherwise.
Clarke J. went on to say:
“It seems to me clear, therefore, that in the absence of an express statutory limitation on reporting, the general constitutional discretion identified in Irish Times v Ireland [1998] 1 I.R. 359 only applies to cases where it can properly be said, in accordance with the principles set out in that case, that the accused’s right to a fair trial may require the reporting restrictions. The undoubted effect which the public knowledge of the existence of criminal proceedings against an individual may have on certain other rights of such individual is not, on the basis of those authorities, a justification for departing from the clear constitutional imperative specified in Article 34.1 to the effect that justice must be administered in public.”
Pg. 50 of this report -
However, the current Minister for Justice sees it quite differently -
It’s a contentious issue with arguments which can be made both for and against the idea -
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American author Alice Sebold has apologised for her part in the wrongful conviction of a man who was cleared last week of raping her in 1981.
In her memoir Lucky, she described being raped and later telling police she had seen a black man in the street who she believed was her attacker.
Anthony Broadwater was arrested and convicted, spending 16 years in prison.
A statement from Mr Broadwater, released via his lawyers, said he was "relieved that she has apologised".
In Ms Sebold's apology statement, she said: "I am sorry most of all for the fact that the life you could have led was unjustly robbed from you, and I know that no apology can change what happened to you and never will".
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What a shocking story! An innocent man spends 16 years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Watch how this turns into a story of racial injustice, and not about overzealous police who were determined to get a rape conviction. All that talk about increasing the rape conviction rate here will bring cases like this to Ireland.
Sebold wrote that after she failed to identify Broadwater in a police lineup, "a detective and a prosecutor told her after the lineup that she picked out the wrong man and how the prosecutor deliberately coached her into rehabilitating her misidentification,"
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American author Alice Sebold has apologised for her part in the wrongful conviction of a man who was cleared last week of raping her in 1981.
In her memoir Lucky, she described being raped and later telling police she had seen a black man in the street who she believed was her attacker.
Anthony Broadwater was arrested and convicted, spending 16 years in prison.
A statement from Mr Broadwater, released via his lawyers, said he was "relieved that she has apologised".
In Ms Sebold's apology statement, she said: "I am sorry most of all for the fact that the life you could have led was unjustly robbed from you, and I know that no apology can change what happened to you and never will".
Alice Sebold’s innocent ‘rapist’: ‘She went through an ordeal. I went through one, too’
When lawyers saw the trial transcript, they quickly realised the case had been flawed
about 18 hours ago
Corina Knoll, Karen Zraick, Alexandra Alter
Long article in the Irish Times, which I haven't read myself so far.
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(Pay-walled)
Sil Fox: ‘That woman got to vanish after she destroyed my life. Where is the fairness in that?’
Sil Fox wants to know why he was charged with a crime a judge deemed to be unfounded based on video evidence
But more than performing, what he wants is answers: why was he charged with a crime that a judge determined was unfounded, based on the CCTV evidence of the interaction with his accuser? He is suing the DPP and the State for damages and has initiated proceedings in the High Court, claiming the prosecution was taken without reasonable or probable cause.
“It is not about money. I just don’t want what happened to me to happen to anyone else. The decision they took against me has had such an impact on my life. It has ruined my life. I want someone to be held accountable. I hope it is dealt with quickly. I hope it doesn’t take the rest of my life away. I hope I am alive to see this out, that it doesn’t drag on for years. I want someone to admit they were wrong to take the case against me. To say sorry.”
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https://twitter.com/i/events/1473063349063598080
Chris Noth dropped from 'The Equalizer' after sexual assault allegations
Noth, who denies the allegations, will be seen in one original upcoming episode of the CBS series that has already been filmed.
So lost the job without any conviction.
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This group might be of use to someone
Accused.me.uk was set up in 2014 by people who had been close to the victim of a malicious allegation of rape in 2012.
With the help of friends, his wife, his family and legal team, he was not charged. The one thing that was apparent during the whole disgusting process, was that there is almost nowhere for men who find themselves the subject of these allegations, to turn for support. Unless you’re very rich, your legal advisors will not have time to help you with the emotional side of what you’re going through. By which we mean, the gut-wrenching fear of having your reputation and your sexual life dissected in a public court – when you know you are innocent as charged. Not to mention the threat of imprisonment for something you absolutely know you never did.
There are a few forums and internet sites that offer support, but almost none in the UK are targeted for men who are victims of false allegations of rape. Hence accused.me.uk.
The aim is that accused.me.uk should become the main place where people who declare their innocence of these accusations can come for support from others who have been through similar experiences. It is most definitely not the place for anyone who has the slightest notion that they might be guilty.
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(On the UK)
Rape – Part 2 (Case Histories of False Allegations)
This isn’t a story of a few rogue cops gone bad, or a crumbling, underfunded criminal justice system overwhelmed by national austerity (though both get blamed daily in courts and the press to cover a wider, more difficult truth). This is a story of a state funded system designed with political ends in mind to convict those accused of crime, because once a person is charged they must be guilty, if only the Crown can prove it. (Solicitor Matthew Graham, 24/1/18)
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Quotes from Lawyers
I wish to make the point that the storm now building around sexual assault cases and disclosure issues, with Alison Saunders now taking her turn in the dock, is of far older vintage and is not confined to the present incumbent of the position of DPP. Back in 2006 we could have read this,
“The system for dealing with accusations of sexual abuse is a disgrace. It has manifest failings that are known to lead to wrong verdicts but which remain uncorrected, and which continue to send innocent men to prison.
Chris Saltrese is a solicitor who has handled many appeals for those accused of sexual crimes. It was not his original area of legal expertise, however. “I started as a commercial lawyer,” he explained to me, “an area of law that is considerably more lucrative than this one. I ended up handling cases of alleged sex crimes only because it became obvious to me that there was an injustice of colossal proportions taking place.” Mr Saltrese believes that there are “certainly scores, and very possibly hundreds” of men who have been convicted of sexual crimes who are rotting in prison with no prospect of release, but who are not guilty and should never have been sentenced.”
Or this from celebrity lawyer Nick Freeman in 2012,
“Incompetence by Crown prosecutors is causing the collapse of an estimated 63,000 criminal cases per year in England and Wales and costing you and I a small fortune in the process…..it is the norm for the CPS to often totally disregard correspondence, to fail to deal adequately with disclosure, to fail to comply with court directions, and to turn up at court on the trial date with several trials listed on the same day many, if not all, of which the prosecutor won’t have seen until that morning.”
In the present context, Mr Freeman has called for people who make false rape and sex assault allegations to be stripped of their statutory anonymity and named on a public register. “The time has come for there to be a register where the names of those who make these disgraceful and disgusting allegations are added”, he said, “Sadly, Mr Allan’s case is not a one off. It is one of many – the tip of the iceberg. False allegations are made on a daily basis, and those who make them can hide behind a lifelong veil of anonymity.”
Freeman is not the first lawyer to call for such a false-alleger register. The appeal court judge Lord Lane made a similar suggestion when considering the 3 year sentence received by a false claimant in the 1980s (quoted in Rumney 2006).
In an excellent résumé of the Liam Allan case, Matthew Scott, the Barrister-Blogger, sums it up, “Despite the magnificent performance of Mr Hayes, a case like this ought to shatter any remaining illusions that the English and Welsh criminal justice system is fit for purpose.”
From another lawyer’s blog just 3 days before I wrote this, here is Bath solicitor Matthew Graham, Partner & Head of Criminal Law & Mental Health at Mowbray Woodwards,
“The job of the police is to investigate whether or by whom an offence has been committed. They have a legal duty to investigate all reasonable lines of enquiry, whether they point towards the guilt or innocence of a particular suspect. It sounds simple, but if you are a suspect in a criminal case you need to understand that this isn’t how it works. This isn’t a story of a few rogue cops gone bad, or a crumbling, underfunded criminal justice system overwhelmed by national austerity (though both get blamed daily in courts and the press to cover a wider, more difficult truth). This is a story of a state funded system designed with political ends in mind to convict those accused of crime, because once a person is charged they must be guilty, if only the Crown can prove it. Inconvenient evidence that would undermine a prosecution or assist a suspect doesn’t achieve either of those aims, so it doesn’t have any real importance. As soon as the police think it is their job to catch the criminals, the system goes wrong, because it is they, not a court or a jury or anyone independent, who is deciding on who is a criminal and then setting about proving it…..
This description is not the cynical rant of a defence lawyer embittered by the constant failure of the police, CPS or Judges to apparently care one bit about due process in investigations and disclosure. It is a summary of legal policies, and the everyday experience of practice in the police station and courts.
Pity those, and there are many, who didn’t get the disclosure they deserved. Pity those suspects where the police hold or could hold evidence that helps their case that they don’t know about. An extra witness here. A useful 999 call there. Social services records. School reports. Text messages. Emails and social media content. And ever on. And more fool those who expect a court to help their quest for fair disclosure. Expect to be met with apathy at best, more likely positive resistance. Expect to be told you are simply fishing for a loophole. Expect to have to justify the relevance of the material you have never seen. Expect the court to wholly accept a bland assurance of a prosecutor in court that never comes to fruition. Expect excuse after excuse after excuse and expect no one in authority to care one bit. And when you reach the day of trial without having received what the law says you should, expect the trial to carry on all the same. Because this is what happens in cases every day, all over the country, in magistrates and crown courts.”
The case histories are littered with judges who have lambasted the CPS for gross mishandling of cases, including the use of the word ‘incompetent’. Nor is this new. Here is a random example from 2016.
As a further example from 2017, Judge Philip Shorrock took the unusual step of writing a letter to a newspaper severely criticising the CPS over its handling of rape cases involving alcohol or drugs. In such he-said-she-said cases when “each gives a plausible enough account” and there is no other evidence, there is no basis on which to bring the prosecution because there is no realistic prospect of conviction – provided the required burden and standard of proof is maintained. Staggeringly, Alison Saunders responded by claiming the judge’s remarks “harked back to the ‘victim- blaming’ culture of the past”. This is the pernicious ‘listen and believe’ mantra eating away at the heart of our criminal justice system. She added, “There is no legal requirement for victims’ accounts to be corroborated by a third party and it is ultimately up to a jury to decide guilt or otherwise based on all the evidence presented to them”. This attitude is corrosive of the standards of proof, for it implicitly hopes that a jury will confuse balance-of-probability, or simply personal opinion, with beyond-reasonable-doubt. In a society which has been demonising men for decades, and preying on women’s fears with terms like ‘rape culture’, such a corrosion of standards is a real danger.
Many lawyers say Judge Shorrock was correct and that political pressure to improve conviction rates in rape prosecutions is leading to cases being brought to court which should not be. Lawyer Chris Saltrese, again, said: “The CPS are not interested in anything a defendant has to say. They are interested in prosecutions. Basically their mantra is ‘don’t concentrate on the credibility of the complainant, try to case-build as much as you possibly can and get a case in front of a jury’”.
It is the system which is broken.
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From the same blog:
Reasons for False Allegations
Reasons for making the false allegation were apparent in 90 of the 146 cases. In four cases two reasons were identified. The number of cases out of 94 corresponding to the various causal categories were as follows,
Regret (19): This was the commonest category. The woman regrets her behaviour sometime after the event and projects the blame onto the man by changing her mind about consent. This is typical of the ‘drunk monkey sex’ type of situation, common amongst students and other young people.
Rejection (14): This category applies to women who decide to punish a man for dumping them (hell hath no fury like a woman scorned).
Revenge, Anger (14): This category applies when the accusation appears to have been a calculated act of aggression for revenge or retaliation when the reason for the anger is other than being dumped.
Infidelity (10): This category refers to women who are married or have a regular boyfriend and seek to excuse themselves for their infidelity by transmogrifying consensual sex with A.N.Other into rape.
Attention (10): Some women seem to enjoy the police attention, and the sense of importance it gives them.
Extortion/blackmail/fraud/compensation (9): In general it is not possible to tell from news reports whether an alleged victim received victim compensation. However, financial gain by some means or another – generally not via victim compensation, e.g., blackmail – was identified in 9 cases. It is likely that victim compensation is a far more significant motivator than can be discerned from these cases.
Political (4): This category relates to cases where false accusers appear to have been motivated by a desire to topple the accused from an influential position, e.g., due to political opposition, or to enhance their own career advancement, protected by anonymity. This category will be more significant in cases involving celebrities and politicians, which are excluded here.
Delusional (4): This is self-explanatory – some women go to extraordinary lengths to fake claims. The characteristic of these cases is they appear obviously bonkers – but are often treated seriously anyway.
Sympathy (3): Some women experiencing a bad patch with their boyfriends, possibly rejection, decide to accuse someone other than the boyfriend as a strategy to gain the boyfriend’s sympathy and re-cement their relationship. In such cases the woman may accuse a man she had never even met.
Jealousy (3): If she can’t have him, no one will! Put him in prison! Or it may be jealousy over financial, rather than amorous, advantage.
Academic (2): These cases refer to students making an excuse for the lateness of a coursework assignment or seeking mitigation against poor exam performance. Yes, it happens.
In addition to the above there was one case of vigilantism (case 16/22) and one case where the motivation was to get a lift home in a police car (15/4). Ruining a man’s life for a £20 cab fare – incredible, isn’t it?
The striking thing about virtually all the case histories is the triviality of the reasons for lying about something with such serious consequences for the accused. This is the empathy gap yet again. What else can account for those who think that an accusation which will blast a man into hell is legitimised by being stood up, or as a stratagem to avoid being dumped, or simply to garner attention or sympathy?
One of the reasons we are less ready than we might be to recognise false allegations by women is that female aggression tends to differ in nature from male aggression. Whereas male aggression tends to be physical, and hence visible, female aggression tends to be relational, and hence harder to identify. (Both these are statistical tendencies, not exclusive statements. Women can be physically aggressive, and men may display relational aggression). Relational aggression consists of destroying a person’s reputation. The classic example of female relational aggression is girl-on-girl bullying in schools, now much aided by social media. Many false allegations of sexual assault can probably be understood as relational aggression.
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Broadcaster Eoghan McDermott has posted a solicitor's letter on Twitter clarifying "false allegations" that were published about him on the social media platform last year.
Tweeting for the first time since February 2021, the former 2fm presenter said: "A few months ago, false allegations were made about me.
"Despite not being investigated or verified, these allegations were spread widely, the effects of which I am still processing."
In an accompanying post, Mr McDermott shared a letter that he says was received by his solicitors acknowledging that there were "false allegations" made against him by their client.
The letter also states that their client "sincerely regrets publishing the inaccuracies" online.
https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2022/0302/1283971-mcdermott-false-allegations-were-made-about-me/
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Eoghan McDermott tweets:
https://twitter.com/eoghanmcdermo/status/1499025875555209217
https://twitter.com/eoghanmcdermo/status/1499025884300423173
Post edited by iptba on1 -
(Pay-walled)
DPP fights comedian Sil Fox’s lawsuit over erroneous prosecution for sexual assault
“I was totally innocent and they ruined my life. They had all the evidence, they had the video footage, and yet they put the case through,” Mr Fox said.
The comedian said he lost friends and lost out on work because of the case.
In a plenary summons, lawyers for the comedian claim he “suffered serious reputational damages arising from false allegations, in circumstances where any reasonable consideration or review of the CCTV evidence would militate against a prosecution”.
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Indeed the head of the DPP is a woman.
Stay Free
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Woman’s claims of rape, sex assault against husband ‘not the truth’, judge finds
Justice says wife made ‘ill-considered’ bid to secure best terms in ‘particularly bitter’ separation case
A High Court judge has ruled that allegations of rape and sexual assault made by a woman against her husband were “not the truth”.
In a recently published judgment, Mr Justice John Jordan said the allegations appeared to the court to be an “ill-considered attempt” by the woman to construct a narrative that might assist her in negotiating or achieving the best terms of the dissolution of the partnership.
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The fight is over the value of this case which will never come to trial.
There is a very important principle at stake - is the State liable to an accused person who is acquitted? The traditional answer is absolutely not. On the contrary, the State has a duty to prosecute if it believes it can prove someone to be guilty of a crime beyond reasonable doubt. So Sil Fox will have to show that the DPP prosecuted him although she did not believe he was guilty. Fortunately for him, he has CCTV evidence which shows this case should never have been prosecuted.
Unfortunately for us, this important principle will not be tested because this case will be settled for an undisclosed sum, probably north of a million Euros. That is how much it will cost us to prevent the court exposing the DPP's misbehaviour in this case.
Yerrah, don't we don't the same week in, week out for incompetent doctors?
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Long delays blamed as victims drop two thirds of rape cases
‘Thousands of victims are failing to get the justice they deserve and this has to stop,’ Dame Diana Johnson says
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Big read: A heinous allegation of rape that brought a family to the brink
Despite being just 21 years old, Caleb Graham has already overcome many challenges during his life.
With an interest in computers, he has studied IT and hoped to be able to get a job in that field.
His autism meant it wasn’t always easy to make friends, but Caleb had found a small group he felt comfortable with at a training college close to his Bangor home.
It was through the college that Caleb got to know Chantelle Clarke.
Later, Clarke went to police and said that Caleb had raped her.
This was the start of a five-year nightmare for the Graham family.
Gilly Graham sat in on the police interview that took place via prior arrangement as her son is considered too vulnerable to be interviewed without an appropriate adult present.
“Then the graffiti appeared on the wall.”
While the police were still investigating the allegations, graffiti claiming Caleb was a rapist was painted on a gable wall in Bangor.
Mrs Graham added: “A friend phoned me to say there was graffiti in Bloomfield estate, to write his full name and say he was a rapist really was distressing.
“That put his life in danger.
When the Bangor facility closed, Clarke moved to Newtownards and the allegations against Caleb began circulating among staff and students.
Mrs Graham said: “He felt intimidated, after the graffiti Caleb wouldn’t even open the front door if it knocked.
“Things he had independently learned to do in his teenage years he reverted back to being unable to do. He wouldn’t even go to the shops close to his home.”
Eventually, Caleb had to seek medical help when his weight loss started to concern his family.
On Friday, she received a 12-month suspended sentence for what the judge said was a “wicked” act against an innocent man.
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Another one who destroyed an innocent man's life, leaving him regressed and in fear has been given no jail time. And the perpetrators mother is annoyed that the media allegedly treated her daughter unfairly. Jesus wept
Stay Free
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The problem is that ultimately, man and woman are simply not equal, they never will be regardless of what all these lefties think or want..... Society also or almost always tends to believe the woman, not the man.
This often results in a woman claiming rape, if she had bad sex or not the kind of orgasm she wanted to have, and makes a rape claim, even though the sex was consensual.
To me, rape means that sex was performed by the use of physical force.
Also, sexual coercion is not rape, sexual coercion means verbal threats or other non physical threats in order to have sex.
Especially to the "me too movement" this is very difficult to explain.
They seem to be mainly after men, who have money, and claim that they were raped way back, like 5 or 10 years ago, only relying on the fact that the woman is believed not the man, and real evidence, like beating, etc... can't be presented anymore.
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This is all over the place. Not sure is this irish example a dream of yours or actually happened .. didnt happen in reality
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A serving senior garda acquitted of sexually abusing a child that his mother was minding 40 years ago is suing An Garda Síochána.
The officer, who was found not guilty by a jury last year, has initiated a legal action against the force in the High Court.
It is understood the officer, who is in his late 50s, is alleging An Garda Síochána failed to disclose key information about the investigation to the defence.
Some of you may recall that in the UK the police got into trouble for not disclosing evidence in rape and sexual assault cases and there was a review.
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Article uses "he" for defendant and "she" for (alleged) victim
Rape accused will have to show consent belief was ‘objectively reasonable’ under new reforms
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee to seek Cabinet approval to overhaul laws on consent, knowledge and belief in rape cases
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The plans to overhaul consent laws will be contained in a Bill which will also provide for anonymity for victims and the accused in all trials for sexual offences, and not just in rape trials.
Anonymity for victims in all trials for sexual offences will be guaranteed and extended to additional offences specifically targeting vulnerable victims, including persons with mental illness or a mental or intellectual disability. Anonymity for the accused will also be provided for in case they are found not guilty of the offence. If an accused person is convicted of a sexual offence, they may be identified unless to do so would lead to identification of the victim.
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The victim’s right to separate legal representation if there is an application to question them on their previous sexual experience will be extended to include trials for sexual assault offences not just rape offences as is currently the case.
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Woman here, cisgender to clarify things. My view is that to deliberately falsely accuse somebody of rape is similar in gravity to being raped.
I also reckon that both stem from a similar issue; ie people developing from childhood with a growing hatred of the “targeted sex”, probably because of early abuse, without a full loving presence in their young lives. No excuse though, plenty of people have grown up similarly without causing criminal offence to others. Just points out the danger zone where such might develop.
When something perpetuates and develops in a mind without sufficient other full distraction, people can become obsessed by an issue, and if that is negative, it can be very dangerous.
Can I get away with anything if I pay the piper, so to speak?
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I notice that in the wording on this, they used "alleged" injured party rather than simply "injured party"
Former Fianna Fáil councillor charged with harassing woman in Cork city
Joseph O’Donovan (47), previously known as Gary O’Flynn, remanded on bail until next month pending directions from DPP
He was also ordered to have no contact, direct or indirect, with the alleged injured party in the case. This also applies to social media.
He also must obey a daily curfew from 10pm to 7am.
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Operation Soteria
In the UK, a few years ago there was a scandal about poor disclosure of evidence to defendants in sexual assault cases
e.g.
The most well-known was the Liam Allan case, in which text messages on the complainant’s mobile indicated conclusively that the sex had been consensual. The police had not bothered to search the phone, though it was in their possession – or, perhaps they had, but failed to disclose their findings. Mr Allan avoided a likely 10 year prison sentence only because the prosecution barrister insisted the police hand over the mobile to the defence council to examine.
The Justice Select Committee in the UK published a report following an investigation.
Here are a couple of extracts:
“The Code for Crown Prosecutors is clear ‘Prosecutors must be fair, independent and objective… Prosecutors must always act in the interests of justice and not solely for the purpose of obtaining a conviction’.”
“It is fundamentally important that all police officers recognise both that they are searching for the truth; and that they have core disclosure duties which are central to the criminal justice process..”
This blog highlights how there are worrying suggestions that there is a move away from this approach with a drive to get more convictions in sexual assault cases.
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