A woman from Frome has been given a fixed penalty notice for wrongly accusing a Warminster man of rape.
The incident happened in an alleyway next to The Old Bell Inn in Market Place, Warminster, at about 3am on Sunday.
Inspector Dave Minty of Warminster and Westbury Police said: “After a thorough investigation utilising the town CCTV a female has been given a fixed penalty notice of £80 for wasting police time.
“She was challenged at an early stage and accepted that the allegation was untrue so we felt a fixed penalty notice was the best cause of action.
“That doesn’t undermine the effect a wrongful allegation has on someone who is wrongly accused of such an offence.
Link:
http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/8805882.Woman_fined_over_false_Warminster_rape_claim/
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4 comments:
"After a thorough investigation utilising the town CCTV..."
I know I sound like a broken record on these, but...once again, we have to weigh the seemingly nefarious potential of these "Big Brother" technologies with the value they have in protecting men from the potential harms that they face from false accusations.
@slwerner: Well said. Granted, I forget the stat but a majority of rape accusations are made about interactions in a bedroom (I think it was 70% but don't hold me to that). What's more important I guess would be the stat in which setting a false rape accusation is more likely to be made. My guess is someone is more likely to regret having sex outside and will sense that it's easier to present as a rape. If this is true, then it lends more weight to big brother tech.
Freedom - ”My guess is someone is more likely to regret having sex outside and will sense that it's easier to present as a rape. If this is true, then it lends more weight to big brother tech.”
There have been several instances of false rape claims being disproved by video surveillance that have been detailed on this site.
One, which would fit well with what you are saying would be the one in which the woman in England was caught on video having prolonged sex (20+ minutes) with a young soldier in the alleyway outside of the pub where they had met. Seems she walked away from the “event” quite satisfied, but reported it as rape the next day.
And there have been others much like that one. Typically, we have seen wherein the video shows what would appear to most rational people to be indications of consent – like the girl who pulled the guy into a restroom for sex, that she later claimed was rape specifically to get victims assistance money.
But, we’ve also seen some other ways in which innocent men have been cleared. Often surveillance indicates that no such activity took place where it was claimed (as in the lead -story above), typically leading to a quick recantation (or, as the SGI might see it, a mean-spirited brow-beating by the patriarchal police in an effort to protect male rapists from the consequences of their heinous crimes in which a confused female rape victim is intimidated into recanting). And, with Gail Sherwood, we have even seen an instance where police did not believe her first lies, and thus set up video surveillance of her home in order to catch her.
For the bedroom, some men have been cleared by video; but, that usually involves some setup in positioning the camera, etc.(of course, there was also the case in which the woman allowed the guy to film her with his phone, but then cried rape anyway).
Since most women are going to be averse to being filmed “in action”, I’ve often thought (and suggested) that a practical alternative, which requires no setup, positioning, nor even light, is a digital audio recorder. (By way of recommendation) I have a Sony ICD-PX820, which I’ve tested to ensure that it has excellent pickup, through clothing, even from ~20 feet away. It also has easily learned (by touch) on/off switch and record button. [My personal use of this a protective device goes well beyond sexual encounters, as I am married and completely monogamous, and could serve me well were I to be threatened with an allegation in an extortion attempt, or should it be (verbally) told one thing, which might be misrepresent to others later. Just thought I’d throw that in.]
All one would need to do would be to get some verbal affirmation of pre-coital consent and/or post-coital contentment to make a strong case if regrets became an issue after the fact.
Yeah, I totally see cases where surveillance could help clear up FRA cases. I am hesitant to support it though, because I am worried about unintended consequences. The job of the police is to build a prosecutable case, and there are any number of things that they can put in a police report to do that. In general, from what I have heard from attorneys, the less information in a police report, the better.
I don't know how surveillance could be used to build a b.s. case against an innocent person. My instinct tells me that it would benefit the innocent more overall, especially as I read the examples you mentioned. It's just that the more I learn about the way the law works, the more skeptical I become. If you asked me a year ago whether an innocent person should speak to the police, I'd ask 'why not? they shouldn't have anything to hide.' I am now a bit wiser. I should also clarify that when I mentioned unintended consequences; I am considering how false positives could show up for a whole array of even non-sexual assault related cases.
I think the recording device evidence is shrewd. Granted, I would feel uncomfortable about it. It's sort of like my take on asking consent. It definitely puts you on more clear legal ground to clearly and expressly ask "do you want to have sex now?", but asking the question that way creates the implication that you are uncertain about whether the girl wants to have sex with you. One could further draw the inference that it's your acknowledgment of being unable to read subtle language. And subtle language is really half of the fun (and difficulty) of building a relationship. People are not robots that say "I like xyz and you like xyz. And you want to have sex with me. I want to have sex with you. Let's have sex." Similarly, even if I carried an audio recorder with me knowing that it's simply a device to protect me. And even though it's a rational thing to do. It goes against my neighborly-in-nature instinct to want to trust people. I'd rather assume that I won't be the 1 in 100,000 that gets caught up with the wrong person or people.
That said, I still always explicitly ask for consent just cause it's not worth the risk not to...it just totally detracts from the experience both for me and (I believe) the woman.
I think I would be more comfortable asking the girl to film the sex as that is actually becoming more commonplace and it's more of a fetish thing.
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