Eight months jail for false rape claim man, Craig Cullen

As most who visit here are aware, we see cases where predominantly, it is a woman leveling false rape accusations. The following story is just the opposite. We have a case of a man leveling the false accusation, who was sentenced to 8 months in jail for the accusation.

The judge in the case makes a very relevant and valid point:

“When false complaints are made they undermine the confidence of juries in the evidence of those who are making true complaints.”

Now, if that could be applied to ALL false accusers, along with the sentence handed down, maybe we could see a drop in false accusations, and an increase in prosecutions of true rapists.

Craig Cullen jailed for false rape accusation.

AN INNOCENT man fainted when he was arrested at work and had to spend a night in the cells after another man falsely accused him of rape.

The unnamed man, who had never been arrested before, had to explain to his boss why he was being arrested before being taken to the police station where he was fingerprinted, questioned, and photographs and samples of DNA were taken.

Craig Cullen, 22, was jailed for eight months for the false and malicious claim that he had been raped by a man in a house at Nantgarw near Pontypridd.

Rachel Knight, prosecuting at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court, said that Cullen told police he was gay and gave a detailed “account” to police, describing how he had been collected from his place of work on February 24 this year and they had gone back to the man’s house.

The two, he said, had only met three times before and there had been some intimate contact, but that they had never had sex until he was raped.

Cullen claimed the man pinned him down on the bed as he raped him.

He told officers that his “attacker” had then shut him in the house, locking the doors and windows, before he returned to take him home in the early hours of the morning.

Cullen claimed that he could not call for help because he did not have a phone but when he was dropped off he made a complaint to a friend and he was taken to the specialised suite in Merthyr Tydfil.

His “attacker”, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested at work and had to explain to his bosses the reason for the arrest.

“He appeared distraught and fainted,” said Ms Knight.

“He said that he had done nothing wrong.

“He said that Cullen was being malicious because he had discovered that things had been taken and there had been an argument before taking the defendant back home.”

He was fingerprinted, DNA tested and questioned and spent seven and a half hours in custody before being released.

Police later discovered that not only was there another person in the house at the time of the alleged assault, but that it was impossible to lock all the doors and windows.

“As a result of the investigation it was not possible that the defendant’s account could be true,” said Ms Knight.

Stephen Thomas, defending Cullen, of Albert Street, Newport, told the court that he knew he had committed a serious offence, hence the guilty plea.

“That in itself is an important factor in sparing the victim from any further trauma,” said Mr Thomas.

He said that Cullen, who admitted perverting the course of public justice, had sent an apologetic text message to his victim and added: “This was an aberration, a one-off offence.”

Jailing Cullen, Judge John Curran said that it had been a malicious and false complaint that had caused damage to a person and his liberty and told him: “When false complaints are made they undermine the confidence of juries in the evidence of those who are making true complaints.”

Link: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/2009/05/28/eight-months-jail-for-false-rape-claim-man-91466-23716270/