How revealing the truth about a witness could see you wrongly convicted.

With the number of false rape claims on the increase it seems prudent to use these cases to highlight how the truth can in fact go against the wrongly accused persons defence in court. There are a variety of reasons cited as to why false claims made including attention, revenge along with other psychiatric conditions but from the moment a trial begins sympathy will inevitably be directed towards the “victim” which only serves to damage the credibility of genuine victims in the long run. Not only is the accused person and their families potential victims of injustice regardless of the motive for a false allegation, but the genuine rape victims are too simply because each red herring opens the door for their legitimate claims to be seen as another such instance.

Thankfully there have been a number of cases where by those who have made false allegations have been punished for doing so and acceptance of the scale of the problem is highlighted by Judge David Bryant’s suggestion that a register should exist for those who make such claims in this as detailed in this BBC report. Unfortunately actual statistics are difficult to quantify for many reasons which include the fact that many actual rapes go unreported.

The following is the case with any false allegation but for simplicity I am concentrating on the singular aspect of those concerning rape. False claims of this can be made by the most surprising of individuals as is clearly demonstrated by the accusations of a 22 year old church ministers daughter Abigail Gibson along with an example of her motive in one the four instances for doing so.

For the purpose of this article, I would like you to think about what any defence teams options are with relation to bringing the plaintiffs character into question without succeeding in only further increasing a jury’s sympathy towards them. Any attempt to call into question her character will be seen as an attempt to suggest that she in someway “deserved to be raped” which is absolutely absurd of course but how it will undoubtedly be viewed. No one ever deserves to be raped, not for reasons of dress, personality or any other reason, but neither does anyone deserve to be accused of a rape that didn’t occur.

The problem is how in the case of an allegation which follows consensual intercourse whereby DNA will most probably be present but prove nothing other than intimate contact? The defence team can suggest to the witness that intercourse was indeed an agreed act, but they can’t apply any firmness with their attempt to do so otherwise it will be seen as a second unwarranted attack on someone who has already suffered a traumatic ordeal.

The only hope is to present a defence which involves very little attempt to question the character of the accuser while at the same time the prosecution will have a free hand at attempting just that against the accused. Discrediting any attempt to smear the defendants character will bring around an element of doubt but in all likelihood will result in a not proven verdict at best and result in the stigma of guilt remaining on an innocent persons character for the rest of his/her life. Therefore in reality this line of defence too is largely futile against the presumed guilt of their client and instant sympathy towards someone who is in reality the guilty party.

In this instance the production of the truth in court will only serve to alienate the jury who will as a result return a guilty verdict against an innocent person leaving the plaintiff free to acquire sympathy and attention at any other time in the future. Much to the detriment of the justice system, the genuine victims of rape and the of course the accused along with their families.

I would therefore strongly request that anyone who has in the past or is currently proceeding with false allegations of rape consider their consciences carefully and think about how many victims they are in reality guilty of creating. Withdraw false claims and have some respect for genuine victims who deserve to be heard without their plight being eroded by those who do not.