Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
Once case should not be used to draw conclusions about an entire system.
It could well be that rape convictions are too low, certainly many women feel that sexual assault in our society (not just rape) has not been treated well in this country and if that wasn't true then how on earth did Saville get away with it for so long?
Ched Evans is now innocent, people who say things about him now should watch themselves for libel. Hopefully he finds a club and gets to continue his career. This is a horrible situation all round.
---------- Post added at 16:08 ---------- Previous post was at 16:07 ----------
I think this should be the default with the one exception that the police can name them if it's deemed to be in the public interest but that decision has to be made by a judge whose guidance would be to use such a power sparingly.
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Of course not but there have been many such cases I'm afraid. The problem in cases such as this is that it's very difficult to prove that rape has been committed but the answer to that cannot be lowering the standards of evidence required or worse still, turning justice on its head in favour of what amounts to a guilty until proven innocent presumption. Rape is an awful crime and those guilty of it rightly face severe punishment but in recognising that what we can't do is apply lesser standards of evidence to it. The often heard argument that women never lie about being raped is intended to create such a situation in effect. There's no real success in achieving higher conviction rates is that done by wrongly convicting more innocent men.
It's also about time that the punishments for false/malicious claims was increased. As it is, an innocent man, his wife and children can have their lives virtually destroyed by someone who walks away without anyone even knowing her name. That can't be right.