Once again, the only thing standing between a man and a lengthy prison sentence due to a false rape accusation is modern technology. We've reported on numerous cases where a video saves a man or boy from jail, but this is the first case we've seen where an iPhone saved the day. One question: when will falsely accused men and boys not have to beg the authorities to bring criminal charges against their false accusers? Why is it so much to ask law enforcement to enforce the law?
Rape charges dropped after deleted messages recovered from iPhone
Deleted but decoded text messages undermined a schoolgirl's claims against a northern beaches businessman, writes Joel Gibson.
A MAN'S business and reputation are tainted, a young woman's HSC and mental health are in tatters and prosecutors have been ordered to pay more than $30,000 in legal costs for a bungled rape investigation on Sydney's northern beaches.
But it could have been worse still, if not for the trove of secrets stored in one of the world's most popular mobile phones.
In what may be the first time an iPhone's elephantine memory has saved someone accused of a serious crime, deleted data retrieved by a leading surveillance expert appears to have led to the dropping of five rape charges against a Sydney man.
Robert*, in his 60s, was a property manager to the rich and famous and a dog breeder.
Jessica* was the 18-year-old daughter of a friend, who never knew her father and dreamed of working with animals.
Their friendship blossomed as they spent mornings training his prize German shepherds. He gave her a $20,000 dog. For three months, they had sex repeatedly en route to dog shows and at a Whale Beach mansion where Elle Macpherson has stayed.
In August last year she accused him of rape. It was - and remains - a case of his word against hers.
Robert lost a job with the Catholic Church, from which he had earned more than $100,000 over the past three years, and was told he could no longer worship there.
The investigating officer, Detective Senior Constable Karen Hennessy, seized the $20,000 dog, saying it was relevant to the investigation.
The only thing standing between Robert and five sentences of up to 14 years were the messages from her on his iPhone, which he had deleted to conceal the relationship.
Robert's lawyer, John Gooley from Collins & Thompson solicitors, commissioned Gary Coulthart, a former covert operations policeman and ICAC surveillance expert, to plumb the depths of Robert's iPhone.
Mr Coulthart retrieved more than 300 deleted texts and phone calls from the alleged victim, some of which appeared to undermine the allegations.
Prosecutors later withdrew the charges and have been ordered to pay $30,056 of Robert's legal costs.
''Without the ability of Coulthart to drag the content out, a man's life may have been ruined,'' Mr Gooley said. ''[iPhone evidence is] a bit like DNA. It can work both ways.''
From a cohort of about 20 people in Australia with the equipment and know-how to do this sort of forensic work, Mr Coulthart said it was the first case he had seen in which an iPhone investigation commissioned by a defence lawyer has led to charges being dropped.
''Usually [when] you get engaged by the defence and they say, 'This person says they didn't do it', you find evidence that they have done it,'' he said.
Apple has sold more than 50 million iPhones since 2007 but few users know how much information they collect. The keyboard logging cache means an expert can retrieve anything typed on it for up to 12 months. Its internal mapping and ''geotags'' attached to photos indicate where a user has been.
An iPhone has up to 32 gigabytes of data that can be ''imaged'' or decoded with the right equipment, Mr Coulthart said, even if it has been deleted.
Robert wants police to investigate Jessica for causing a false investigation and is considering civil action against the police and the church.
''It's put huge pressure on my home life and on my business,'' he said. ''I had to go through the denigration of being charged and I've never been in trouble in my life.''
Jessica did not want to comment.
A spokeswoman for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said it withdrew the charges because the victim did not want to proceed and that ''the brief of evidence had not been given to the ODPP at the time this matter was withdrawn''. A police spokeswoman said that, for operational reasons, it was inappropriate to comment except to say that the alleged victim had told police she did not wish to pursue the matter.
*Not their real names
Link: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/rape-charges-dropped-after-deleted-messages-recovered--from-iphone-20100727-10ueq.html?autostart=1
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16 comments:
And apparently Americans don't care much about punishing false rape accusers. Too busy flipping out over illegal immigration and such.
"a young woman's HSC and mental health are in tatters"
Awww the porr porr bay-bee.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/01/saudi-arabia-rape-victim-now-faces-100-lashes-for-the-crime-of-being-raped.html
Until this is a thing of the past women in the West will always feel like they are victims of the gender bias.
"Until this is a thing of the past women in the West will always feel like they are victims of the gender bias."
Then women of the West must enjoy feeling like victims. The fact is, we rarely report on false rape claims from that part of the world because it is not reflective of what goes on here.
Your comment suggests that we support oppression of women, and that is because you have fashioned an image us -- and anyone who would dare speak up for an issue that overwhelmingly affects men and boys -- as "women haters." We won't dignify your despicable misandry with a rebuttal.
"And apparently Americans don't care much about punishing false rape accusers. Too busy flipping out over illegal immigration and such."
The ones who are opposed to illegal immigration are the ones who foment the two percent and similar lies. Neither side of the political spectrum cares about the falsely accused.
It is the perversion of a legal system that does not charge false rape accusations.
The Femi- nazi "construction" is the paradigm framework that uber-liberates 3% of American males and around 30% of their female counterparts.
The "women as victim" femi-nazi construction is the false pre-text to justify manufacturing large masses of uneducated male laborers that are easilly harvested for the military, and dangerous labor intensive jobs.
This is what it is..I'm just sick of the arrogance of the Gender / Raunch mouthpieces that have a righteous and pridefull arrogance when they spout their femi-nazi rhetoric is classrooms accross America.
Anonymous feminist agitator, on the mistreatment of women under Sharia Law - ”Until this is a thing of the past women in the West will always feel like they are victims of the gender bias.”
While her comment is complete inappropriate for this blog, perhaps she would do well to consider that, not only will such NOT be becoming a thing of the past in Islamic countries, it may well be becoming a part of the West as well – and feminism and it attenuate excess are largely to blame.
As feminism continues to routinely over-shoot it stated goal of gender equity, and goes further and further down the road of female supremacy and female privilege (over men), more and more men (often those who’ve found themselves caught in the gears of the new gyno-centric machinery) become resentful, disconnected and alienated from Western Society.
And, while the narcissism of Western women has been a chief component of declining birth rates (~1.7 per women – below basic “replacement” level), the birth rate of Islamic women living in the West has jumped (~3.0 per women). Add to that the influx of immigrants not only from the Islamic world, but also from third world countries where an over-macho-ized form of Patriarchy is still the norm [that’s right liberal progress feminist women, the third world you so idolize and pedistalize only practices the worst of misogyny. Mena are EXPECTED to beat their wives and daughters to keep them in line, and the rape of women is excused with a bribe to officials]. Throw in the increasing idolization of the misogynist “Thug” Playa by these same women, and one gets the picture of where we may well be headed.
The “good guys”, the men who could once be counted on to stand up and protect women – often with their very lives – are the ones selectively targeted by feminism. They are expected to either become increasingly feminized (rejecting their masculine nature), or they are to be punished for behaving in masculine ways – all while the truly misogynistic thugs of the Ghettos, Barrios, trailer parks, and Islam are given an elevated status for their behaviors.
It may well be that when Islamic’s seek to impose Sharia Law through Western Society, that the thugs won’t care, the wimps will just obediently roll over, and the good guy’s who still act as men will be so alienated by feminized Western Culture that they will just stand back and watch as the women who’ve rejected THEIR masculinity get the reward they so richly deserve (How Machiavellian!).[/rant]
I apologize for temporarily derailing this thread for my rant…please proceed.
"It may well be that when Islamic’s seek to impose Sharia Law through Western Society, that the thugs won’t care, the wimps will just obediently roll over, and the good guy’s who still act as men will be so alienated by feminized Western Culture that they will just stand back and watch as the women who’ve rejected THEIR masculinity get the reward they so richly deserve (How Machiavellian!).[/rant]"
First of all, I'm a firm support of this site.
In fact, I myself have been accused and convicted of a crime
I never committed, so I can kind of relate to those who frequent this site and have gone through a false accusations.
Slwerner,
kindly keep that bigotry under wraps, OK?
Can you do that?
Let's just focus on the problem
of False Rape Accusations.
Isn't that what this site is
all about, after all?
I'm a Muslim. In fact, I attended a full-time Islamic School (madrasah) up until graduation.
Nearly every time I get on the net,
I come across a comment or news article that paints this picture
of those like me:
1) I want hate 'infidels' and wish them harm
2) I hate women
3) I'm uneducated
4) I hate Jews
And I could go on and on and on...
Oh, and I am a practising Muslim, too. I don't drink, I don't smoke,
and I pray 5 times daily.
Most of my friends have been to countries in the Middle East to further their studies.
Nobody comes back going 'We need to kill the Jews!'
Now here's the thing.
I know someone will go 'Well what about In Saudi Arabia women can't drive... Iran forbids women from...
Christians are persecuted... bla bla bla'.
What is it EXACTLY do you expect me to do?
Call up the fucking Saudi King and set him straight?
Go to Iran, and tell them 'No, you shouldn't do this... do as I say.'
And I know someone (always happens)
will quote a verse from the Quran to justify his bigotry.
Now here's the thing.
Do not quote in isolation,
and if you do, explain the context as well.
Then post the widely-followed interpretation, not that of some weird bearded guy no one's ever heard of from some remote village in the mountains in Yemen.
Alright just a bit more and then
I'm done.
Bear with me.
Before I found out about this site,
I always assumed the men in Western countries didn't give a damn about false rape accusations.
I'd watch shows and documentaries
and be astonished at how MEN especially could allow such misandry to run rampant.
You need to seek out site like this to be aware that there IS resistance,
you get what I mean?
Same thing with Islam and Muslims.
You guys can do all this research on statistics of false rape accusations to counter the Feminist propaganda...
but then freely post false
or misleading information about
me?
Yes. ME. I do not hate women.
I don't hate Jews.
If I ever decide to settle in the US, I won't secretly lobby to introduce Sharia law (which version were you ranting about, anyway? Sheesh).
Disagree with Islam.
That's fine. Debate IS healthy.
But posting half-truths as facts?
You know better.
Man that was a long rant.
And no, I am not a crack addict.
It's just a nickname.
Get over it.
Correction: supporter of this site.
MAN I hate typos.
CrackAddict - ”Slwerner,
kindly keep that bigotry under wraps, OK?
Can you do that?”
In my little rant, I did not explain myself well – I’ll acknowledge that.
But, by that same token, you have misread stuff into my post that simply isn’t there. It was in no way intended to be anti-Islamic in nature, nor even anti-immigrant – but rather to point out that Western Feminism preferentially targets the very men who are their natural allies. Even the anonymous posters remarks were obviously intended to shame Western men for supposed injustice in an Islamic country.
My reaction was meant more to elucidate the fact that progressive liberals (which most gender-feminists would associate themselves as) have had an inglorious history of holding up non-Western societies as preferable alternatives to supposedly male-dominated, male-privileging Western societies. Then, hypocritically, they blame Western men/Western society when misogyny pops up in non-Western societies. That was my intended target.
What I didn’t include in my rant is that the Western world has no business in trying to dictate what other societies choose to do. And, frankly, I well recognize that Sharia Law places heavy demands on men as well in it aim to keep and orderly society. As such, I am not particularly fearful of Sharia Law, were it to come to the West (as it likely eventually will, for the reasons I tried to point out).
My “gripe” is not with Islam, Sharia, nor any other non-Western entities; but squarely with feminists who try to blame us Western men for what they perceive as gender-issue elsewhere in the world. I hold them as hypocrites for their “romanticism of the non-Western on the one hand, and their gripes that Western men aren’t addressing the “issues” in those societies. For me, it’s a truly a WTF???
I also added in what is obvious to most men – women who claim to find masculinity distasteful never-the-less have no problem that so many of their number gravitate towards the very worst of masculine expression as seen in the “thugs” and “playa’s”. And, note, I do not mean to interject any racial nor ethnic delineation here. Good men of all races/religions/ethnicities are equally by-passed to get to the hot “bad boys”.
And, further, when gender-feminists start throwing out the “all men are…” lines, what they are really doing is taking the worst qualities in those men (who’ve likely treated them very badly in F’ & Chuck relationships) and projecting them out over all the “good guys” – as a way of avoiding any personal responsibility on their part for a need to be more rational and selective in their own relationship choices. You see, if all men (insert selected character defect), then it’s not her fault that she couldn’t see that guy she was attracted to was that way, nor that most other guys are not.
Slowly, but surely, good men of all stripes are seeing feminism reduce and degrade Western society – from the Anti-family court system, to legalized discrimination against them, to the sexual market place devaluation of positive traits, right on through to the demonization of the entire gender, and the selective persecution knowingly carried out through instruments such as FRA’s and false DV claims – and they are becoming increasing fed-up.
It is my speculation that, seeing no other way to reign-in rampant misandry, female privilege, and female raunch culture, many men will see Sharia as a reasonable alternative. The only people who stand to truly suffer being those who would chose to behave in wanton ways.
I do hope you don’t see this as an anti-Islamic position?
PS - you need to get over your paranoia about people discussing Islam. I said absolutely nothing about any anti-Jewish activities what-so-ever. You just over-imagine it.
Wow.
I'm so used to getting such hostile responses whenever I post something in defense of Islam (and myself)
that when someone DOESN'T attack me for it, I'm actually taken aback.
Yep. It happens so often
that sometimes,
I just don't bother anymore.
But I support your cause and felt compelled to respond.
Thanks for your clarification.
As for Sharia law,
I have no idea which
version you're talking about,
so I am unable to comment on it.
For the record,
a LOT of Islamic scholars disagree
with the strict interpretation
of Islam in certain parts of
Saudi Arabia.
This is why most female students
from the Islamic Schools over here
(Singapore)
choose to go to countries
like Egypt and Malaysia to
further their studies.
Just a little tidbit.
One last thing I would like add
and it is about Singapore.
Under the law,
men do NOT have modesty.
I shit you not.
A woman could grope you,
make offensive comments
about males at the workplace,
and under the law, it's perfectly fine.
You tell the woman
to 'Fuck off', and
you WILL be facing criminal charges.
Are you shivering yet?
”Prosecutors later withdrew the charges and have been ordered to pay $30,056 of Robert's legal costs.”
Back before I derailed this thread, this particular sentence had caught my attention.
Not specifically related to the FRA issue, but Australian criminal courts must operate differently (than in the US) for a finding (of what I conclude must have been some form of) prosecutorial misconduct from the bench at the time charges were withdrawn.
The news account obviously gives this detail short-shrift, yet this might be of more “value” than is immediately apparent if, in Australia, a judge reviewing the dismissal of charges can investigate and come to the conclusion that the prosecutors knowingly acted in an inappropriate way which caused an additional $30,000 expenditure by the defendant.
In the States, that would be left up to a civil court, and LE is generally provide with a “good faith” exception, unless it can be conclusively shown that they had reason NOT to continue with charges.
If Australian law allows for a judge to make such a binding determination, it’s yet another example of how US law could be changed for the better.
Of course, the article may just have glossed over extensive legal proceedings which lead to the finding of financial liability. Such is the danger of relying on the media for accurate information.
In regards to "Until this is a thing of the past women in the West will always feel like they are victims of the gender bias" it's interesting that you mention that. Here's the thing, feminists are silent about what goes on in Islamic countries why? For one, in Western countries it's WAY easier to push their agendas because they actually have the freedom to do so. Even tho they have the best opportunities in America, it's more practical to keep peddling the "1 in 4" and "just 2%" cliches. Also given that most feminists are left-wing in other areas, they have an alliance w/ anything that is multicultural or just plain non-Western, non-Christian, non-white male.
So the fact that it goes on in other parts of the world, doesn't affect their emotions WHATSOEVER. I'm NOT trying to offend any self-identified Left-wingers/Liberals on this blog. I myself am politically independent. BUT, let's be realistic, what political ideology tends, to be overly self-critical of Western/American society.
Concerned Android
hey wait a minute, i thought women and girls NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER lie about rape??
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