Comment: The case reported belows tells us all we need to know about our false rape culture: on the basis of nothing more than a woman's rape lie, the 27-year-old ex-husband of the claimant was arrested and subjected to naked indignities. He was held in custody for 16 hours. It turns out the claims was revenge for an acrimonious break-up. It is the sort of revenge only available to women because their rape lies are instantly believed. Read on, it gets worse: the police almost proudly announced that the woman was treated as a victim right up until her lie was finally exposed. You know the rest: if the woman is treated as a victim, the man must be treated as a criminal. That tells us all we need to know. If we are going to make rape claims so easy to report and instantly believable, there is a moral imperative to treat the presumed innocent as something more than flotsam, or collateral damage in the war on rape. The fact that we don't treat them as something more than that is the reason for this Web site.
Ex-wife jailed for false rape claim
A MAN has spoken of the pain and humiliation after being falsely accused of rape by his estranged wife.
Anthony Scoones was arrested at his home and spent 16 hours in a police cell when his former partner – out to discredit him after their “acrimonious separation” – told detectives he had sexually assaulted her.
Last night, after Gemma Louise Scoones was jailed for 12 months for what a judge called “sheer wickedness”, Mr Scoones spoke of his nightmare ordeal. The 27-year-old was watching television in bed when police banged on the door of his home in Langdale Place, Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.
He was taken to Spennymoor police station where he says that, in a day of questioning, he lost his pride, confidence and trust in people.
Mr Scoones handed over his clothes for forensic examination, had to wear a paper suit, and a doctor took body swabs as evidence.
“I wasn’t just stripped of my clothes, but my dignity,” he said last night.
“I was stood there naked, with two police officers at one side of me and a doctor at the other side having swabs taken from all over my body.
“It was humiliating and degrading.
“I don’t blame the officers for investigating, but it is a heinous crime to be accused of and I’m still having nightmares now.”
Durham Crown Court heard it was only when discrepancies arose in a police interview with the then alleged rape victim that the truth emerged.
She was arrested and admitted the claim was untrue.
Mr Scoones was then released and told no further action would be taken.
His 26-year-old accuser, of Kirkstone Place, Newton Aycliffe, admitted an act intending to pervert the course of justice and was jailed for 12 months.
Stephanie Donington, prosecuting, said Scoones made the allegation in a phone call to police on January 10.
She told officers her estranged husband followed her back from a shop, forced his way into the house and raped her in a downstairs toilet. She claimed she was injured in the ordeal.
Asked why she had not reported it earlier, she claimed he had threatened to petrol bomb the house.
Miss Donington said that when the true story emerged, Scoones admitted planning to make up the story as a result of claims made in a letter from her estranged husband’s solicitor.
“She felt they were lies and believed she could get back at him if she made up a big enough lie,” said Miss Donington.
When told it led to him being held in custody, she replied: “It’s not enough.”
Scott Smith, mitigating, said Scoones’ actions arose from an acrimonious separation after a nine-year relationship.
Mr Smith said: “She was upset and this built up in her as time went on. She accepts there was a degree of planning and she considered her actions for several weeks.”
Jailing her, Recorder Neil Davey told Scoones: “In my judgement, the course you embarked on was one of sheer wickedness.
“You decided to take revenge on your ex-husband, by falsely accusing an entirely innocent man of rape, giving a lurid account of how it was inflicted.
“He was strip-searched, intimate samples were taken and he was humiliated, held in custody for more than 16 hours, and still you persisted in your claims.
“It was only the skill and expertise of the police that forced you to break down your story and prove your allegations were false.” Mr Scoones said that although his parents and girlfriend have stood by him, some friends had doubted his innocence.
He said: “Throughout the time Gemma and I were together, my family took her under their wing and supported her, but she would regularly take off and tell lies about me.
“My friends and family always believed me. But when the word rape is used, it changes the atmosphere. People did question me and this has opened my eyes up to who I can trust.
“Right up until she admitted her guilt in court and justice was done by sending her to prison, she was muddying the water and I’ve been worried about how people look at me.
“She’s taken away my trust, self-esteem, pride and confidence with one attentionseeking, spiteful lie.”
PC Elizabeth Graham, of Durham Police’s domestic abuse investigation team, said the force was very victimfocused and that the allegation of rape had been taken seriously and fully investigated.
It was only when the truth emerged that Scoones stopped being treated as the victim.
PC Graham said: “This was a calculated and malicious allegation made by a frustrated ex-partner who had an aim of discrediting her former husband and subjecting him to the indignity of a police investigation into an allegation of rape.
“The sentence imposed reflects the gravity of the offence committed and takes into account the trauma the true victim of this incident experienced, as well as the significant waste of police time and money spent investigating a crime that never occurred.”
PC Graham said she hoped the incident would not deter genuine victims of rape and sexual assault from reporting crimes to the police.
Link: http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/4266802.Ex_wife_jailed_for_false_rape_claim/
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10 comments:
Inadequate sentence. The whore deserves life!
"PC Graham said she hoped the incident would not deter genuine victims of rape and sexual assault from reporting crimes to the police."
This standard "boiler-plate" is becoming tiresome.
Just HOW is a liar being punished for their lying supposed to act as a deterrent to someone else telling the truth?
Why do none of these spokespersons ever try to explain this inane statement that they always feel that they MUST include.
There will be no honest discussion of rape versus false rape accusations, until the public is first told the whole story.
False rape accusations are not 2%, and the law enforcement community is not telling us the truth. Gender feminist dominance of the legal system tells us "they are keeping the truth from us ..FOR THE GREATER GOOD"...which i say is bullshit.
They are keeping the truth from the public..TO ENABLE FALSE RAPE ACCUSERS!!
From Various parts of the linked article:
"Asked why she had not reported it earlier, she claimed he had threatened to petrol bomb the house." & "Stephanie Donington, prosecuting, said Scoones made the allegation in a phone call to police on January 10." & "Mr Scoones handed over his clothes for forensic examination, had to wear a paper suit, and a doctor took body swabs as evidence."
Since these items were scattered through the body of the article, I failed to pick up on this earlier, but...
Just how long after teh fact did she call her lie into the authorities? And, given that some time (days?) seem to have eleapsed between the time she claimed the false rape happened, and the time Mr Scoones was taken into custody, just WTF were they thinking in doing a body-swab examination?
What evidence could they possibly have hoped to find on his person after so much time had passed?
In my mind, it seems that the true intent of such an examination was merely to humiliate Mr Scoones, rather than any belief that any thing would be found.
If I'm correct in my assumption, the police should have to answer for having done such a thing. No mention is made as to whether Mrs. Scoones underwent a standard rape examine (seems unlikely, as too much time had elapsed for such an exam to have been meaningful)> I'd have to guess that if timely a rape exam had been done, it would have been immediately evident that no such act had, in fact, occurred. Mr Scoones could have been spared the trouble and humiliation.
It isn't enough to just prevent innocent men from being convicted. We need to send the liars to prison and then take steps to make sure that innocent men are never charged in the first place.
12 months or no 12 months, the victim in this case has suffered infinitely more than the criminal!
I agree with slwerner
To suggest a life sentence is stupid though. She should quite simply serve exactly the same sentence he would have received had he been convicted by her lies.
Additionally, she should be made to sign the sex offenders register as this is quite clearly a sex offence.
For those who aren't aware of UK law - if she doesnt' do anything too bad in prison she'll only serve half her sentence - so she'll be free by October!
I realize that she only got 12 months, however guys, she did get a sentence that is, quite frankly, a lot longer than most of the women--or even some men--that make such vile false sexual accusations. Although, men being falsely accused is still very common, the sentences appear to be getting just a little bit longer. Hey, who knows, in another 20 years, we might be able to get these criminals jailed for up to 5 years. ;)
In all seriousness, I agree with imposing extremely strict time restrictions on making any kind of sexual allegation. You should not be able to make any allegation if the time elapsed has been 5 days. What do you guys think? I believe that a very strict statute of limitations is another way to go to greatly reducing all of the false allegations that our society has been plagued with in recent decades.
God Bless
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Anon - ”In all seriousness, I agree with imposing extremely strict time restrictions on making any kind of sexual allegation. You should not be able to make any allegation if the time elapsed has been 5 days. What do you guys think?
While there may be some special considerations in individual cases which might allow for a longer reporting period, the idea that 5 days ought to represent some maximum for, at the very least, treating the report with increased suspicion, does seem quite logical.
By that time, direct physical evidence cannot be reliably recovered. No rape-kit nor body swabbing is going to yield anything remotely useful. Thus, it becomes a matter of the believability of the person making the report.
At a minimum, a red flag should be raised due to the elapsed time. One serious issue to consider is that if it took a women 5 days to decide that she felt that she had been raped, it’s going to be increasingly difficult to prosecute. However, if it took 5 days to work up the courage to make the report, that’s a different story.
In the latter case, she needs to be informed that her delay will limit what can be done as far as gathering direct evidence, and that it will likely come down to a “he-said, she-said” matter should it go to court. Before any arrest of an alleged perpetrator is made (since time is no longer of the essence), her story should be investigated for plausibility and reliability. The man should not be engaged in any way until her story passes the “smell test”.
If the former applies, then the woman should be counseled as to how she has come to the conclusion that a rape occurred. This would allow instances of regret or peer pressure to be “weeded out” before an innocent man is harmed.
I believe these few simple steps could serve to reduce the incidents of innocent men having their lives ripped apart needlessly.
"Just HOW is a liar being punished for their lying supposed to act as a deterrent to someone else telling the truth?"
This.
A satisfactory result. Not great, just satisfactory. However, it IS a sentence and she IS doing time. It's a step forward.
It's not that long ago that she would have walked. Good to see more and more of these stories coming to light.
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