Several things jump out from this story:
1. She was 15 and "extremely intoxicated."
2. None of her descriptions matched Mr. Uttley
3. No DNA of Mr. Uttley was ever found, but 3 other men's DNA was. Sounds like she had a busy night.
4. The final sentence of this story, is one of the most frightening things I've ever read: "The Crown asked for time to consider the judgement over whether to make a motion for a new prosecution."
So, the Crown is considering retrying the case, even though the court of appeals thinks this was a "miscarriage of justice."
The moral of the story? As sad as it is, being a good Samaritan is a good way to go to prison in today's society. It may be a better idea to just walk away and not help.
Desmond Uttley has conviction overturned.
A man who was jailed for rape after going to the aid of a drunken teenager in Edinburgh has been declared a victim of a miscarriage of justice.
Desmond Uttley was sentenced to six years in jail after he was found guilty of raping the 15-year-old girl in 2002.
However, after hearing new evidence, judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal overturned his conviction.
The 35-year-old had denied raping the schoolgirl at his Lochend Gardens home on 14 June in 2002.
He had stood trial at the High Court in Glasgow later that year.
The girl had been out with a 14-year-old male friend and both been "extremely intoxicated" after drinking cider.
She was unable to stand without help and was lying on the road in the pouring rain when Mr Uttley arrived on the scene and helped her friend to pick her up.
He invited them both back to his house and carried the girl to his home where he laid her on a bed and she fell asleep.
During Mr Uttley's trial she identified him as her attacker, although she had given the police two descriptions of her assailant, neither of which matched him.
After jurors retired to consider their verdict, they returned to the court with questions over whether tests were carried out on swabs taken from the teenager, and if Mr Uttley's DNA was present on them.
The trial judge, Lord Menzies, told them there was no DNA evidence in respect of those swabs.
The appeal court heard that no blood or semen was found on the swabs from the teenager and they were not submitted for DNA testing.
Three men
Mr Uttley's defence lawyers on Thursday led evidence at his appeal from a Strathclyde University forensic science lecturer, Dr Adrian Linacre, who was asked to examine swabs taken from the teenager in 2004.
He carried out a particular type of DNA analysis on the Y chromosome, which was different from the standard genetic fingerprinting test.
He found no DNA matching Mr Uttley, but did find there was some from three other male sources.
Lady Dorrian said: "We are satisfied that the verdict, returned in ignorance of this evidence, must be regarded as a miscarriage of justice."
The Crown asked for time to consider the judgement over whether to make a motion for a new prosecution.
Thanks to gwallan for the tip.
Link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8406437.stm
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
11 comments:
This is why men should not help women any more. Ever, for any reason.
If she dies of pnuemonia out in the cold then so be it. I'm not getting sent to prison on a false charge for trying to help.
or, sad to say, children.
Basically, fuck everyone..
AfOR
I have to agree with both of you.
Not everyone, AfOR.
For instance, I would not feel that I was placing myself in danger by going out of my way to help another man.
In fact, I consider helping a man in his time of need to be a fulfillment of my civic duty.
Women have forfeited that right.
A dangerous slope indeed. Hmmm....
Snark - "In fact, I consider helping a man in his time of need to be a fulfillment of my civic duty."
I'd second that, Snark.
One thing you can count on, even if a man has been out cheating on his wife, he's not going to accuse you of rape as his excuse.
Unless I either know a woman, or she is discernibly older than 40, I'm going to have to think very carefully if I want to help her. Hopefully, for her sake, there would be credible witness on hand so that I could fell safe in lending assistance.
Our normal human nature compels us to take a helpless women in out of the rain; yet, sadly, that also make one the most convenient male scape-goat, should she so chose. Just too much risk.
I'll just call the police and wash my hands of any further responsibility.
It is perhaps only a small fraction of woman who we actually need to fear. However, the failure of woman(collectively) to call such women on their heinous behaviors may well now imperil all of them.
One thing you can count on, even if a man has been out cheating on his wife, he's not going to accuse you of rape as his excuse.
But if he is a thug he will put his girlfriend up to a FRA. Remember there is victim's compensation at stake here. With this mentality, $30k is a lot of money for just a "little" FRA.
They can buy a lot of drugs with that money.
Think about it.
CBGirl
"I'll just call the police and wash my hands of any further responsibility."
I wouldn't even bother doing this.
When I say I wouldn't lift a finger to help a woman any more, I truly mean it.
Snark,
As sad as it is, I agree, at this point, I'd just walk away, and not help in any capacity. Not even calling for help.
You want to see some truly disgusting comments on this? Check out This.
The number of people who were trying to blame him for this, just astound me. And the worst part? Almost ALL of those, were women.
Not a single one is calling for any punishment for the girl, decrying her bad acts, or making her responsible at all. The fact that there were 3 different men's DNA present (at 15? really? Where the hell are her parents?), and she is the victim?
Disgusting.
My false rape accuser also had two different loads of sperm in her, and neither of them were mine. (she also had a busy night). I was the second guy this little pig falselly acussed in the same year. She also gets chunks of money from the womens rape crisis center...THAT SHE NEVER HAS TO PAY BACK.
She never has to pay back the money because these centers ALWAYS BELIEVE THE WOMEN...EVEN WHEN THEY ARE LYING!!
Yer taxpayer dollars folks are funding these same crack head girls filing false rape charges for drug money.
Sorry for my bad english. Thank you so much for your good post. Your post helped me in my college assignment, If you can provide me more details please email me.
Post a Comment