Greed And Evil
In the U.K., a girl lures a pal into sex, then falsely accuses him of rape to get 7,500 pounds in victim compensation. From the Daily Mail, at least Sarah-Jane Hilliard now "faces jail." But what if her crime hadn't been discovered? Let's hope she gets exactly the jail term he would have if he'd actually raped her -- and let's see her on some sort of work program to pay him (and big) for suffering she put him through. All in favor?
An excerpt from the story:
Hilliard told police she met up with Mr Bowers, whom she regarded as a friend, at Liquid nightclub in Basildon, Essex, on July 26 last year.She said he joined her and a friend in their taxi home, but when she stopped in a public toilet by the railway station he came in and attacked her.
In reality they had met at another club and walked to the station, and it was she who lured him into the toilet - even telling him he 'better be there for the baby' if she became pregnant.
Mr Bowers was arrested and bailed. But eight days later, after police failed to find CCTV images of the pair outside Liquid, Hilliard's friend confessed that they had actually been in the nearby Colors nightclub all night.
CCTV footage from there clearly showed Hilliard and Mr Bowers, both from Basildon, kissing and holding hands before leaving.
Officers contacted Mr Bowers and told him he would not be charged and instead arrested Hilliard for perverting the course of justice.
But this did not save him from being made a hate figure. 'The last 11 months have been horrendous,' he said.
'I've lost all my self- confidence. I don't know why she did it but her lies have ruined my life.'
Mr Bowers's father, Tony, 48, said his son had to move out of Basildon because of threats against him. He said: 'After the court case people started kicking the door of his flat in and shouting "rapist" though the letterbox.
'He moved into temporary accommodation but he heard that people were offering £100 to find out where he was. He's been threatened and chased through town with a knife too.
Thanks, Deirdre
In addition, I would suggest that the police departments involved in such cases should have to pay compensation for wrongful arrest. Unless, that is, they can demonstrate sufficient grounds for having arrested the suspect at the time.
Police officers involved in such cases should have it placed on their record, and if they are involved in multiple such cases this should count against their eligibility for promotion, retirement benefits etc.
Nick S at August 15, 2009 12:23 AM
Makes you wish there was some way to have giant hovering text over her head so that any guy can see "false rape accuser", both so that men can be careful and so that she never gets any dates again.
Stacy at August 15, 2009 5:22 AM
This girl should face the same time he would have if not more. People believe he raped her and just wasn't charged, at least the stupid ones. It reminds me of two cases here right now. The women charging Ben Roethlisberger and Pitino(think I spelled correctly). In Roethlisberger's case, he's led a quiet life for an NFL star and now he will be tainted with this. Most likely she will eventually be offered a settlement to go away because there is no way of proving either way. His accuser will face no repercussions and he will always have that taint. Pitino is married and obviously cheated on his wife, but does he deserve to be accused of rape? His accuser only faces blackmail charges. These women destroy lives with their false accusations and should face serious jail time as well as restitution to their victims. They also hurt rape victims with their false charges. True victims of rape go through so much to put a rapist behind bars. False accusers make it that much harder for them.
Kristen at August 15, 2009 5:44 AM
The old feminist saw is that rape is the means by which all men keep women in their place.
It is actually closer to the truth to say that radical feminism, false accusations and other legal persecution are the means by which most women keep men in their place.
That is, the majority of women don't have to be scary radical fems or false accusers or other assorted nutcases. All that is required is for women in general to condone the existence of such types in order to send an implicit message to men that if they fall out of favor with the women in their lives that is what is in store for them.
Nick S at August 15, 2009 6:35 AM
See also: herd immunity.
brian at August 15, 2009 7:47 AM
Obviously one of the biggest problems here is that Britain has created a financial incentive for accusing someone of a crime. When you do that you are going to get a lot of false reports. Get rid of that incentive and then put people in jail for a long time for a false accusation and that will go a long way towards fixing the problem.
Isabel1130 at August 15, 2009 8:16 AM
Reductio ad absurdum thought experiment: If I give a woman 7500 quid, can I rape her any time I like? Just once?
Tyler at August 15, 2009 8:33 AM
Makes you wonder how many innocent men are sitting in jail right now; this is probably a lot more common than we generally think.
DavidJ at August 15, 2009 9:06 AM
> See also: herd immunity.
Brian has thoughts about herd immunity!
Hey Brian!— If you fall off your motorcycle and crack your bare skull on the curb (we know how you hate helmet laws), and they take your uninsured, shallowly-wheezing carcass to the hospital, there's going to be all kinds of smart people using tested procedures on fancy equipment to make you better.
And it all will have been paid for by people with insurance. People who didn't move through the world saying "they'll eventually get their money."
Please describe such a blessing in the context of "herd immunity".
We appreciate your clarity on these matters!
Crid [CridComment @ gmail] at August 15, 2009 1:20 PM
A tattoo on her forehead reading:
"I falsely accused a man of rape"
Or something to that effect. Plus damages in sufficient sum to allow him to start his life over in the location of his choice, plus jail time equivalent to what he would have recieved had her lies not been exposed.
----------------------------------------------
I think that would be fair.
Robert at August 15, 2009 3:02 PM
If, as Catherine McKinnon has so famously said, "feminism depends on believing women's tales of abuse," where exactly does this avalanche of false accusations leave feminism?
It has gotten so bad that, even while I resent my treatment as a man in this society, I still would be too embarrassed to be a woman.
Jay R at August 15, 2009 4:08 PM
Something to that statement.
If we treat women with the same skepticism we do men, demand proof of allegations and bring hard justice down on liars...just by that, which seems itself very little to ask, indeed what SHOULD be the norm...we've effected a social revolution.
Robert at August 15, 2009 5:12 PM
Re: "Let's hope she gets exactly the jail term he would have if he'd actually raped her -- and let's see her on some sort of work program to pay him (and big) for suffering she put him through. All in favor?"
I'd be very surprised if anything like that happens. But if anyone hears about the final disposition in this case, I hope Amy or someone will provide a link to this web site.
I don't know the full story, but I wonder why a medical examination wasn't done. If I were a prosecutor on the case, I'd want as strong a case as possible - and physical evidence. Does anyone know if physical exams as a followup to rape accusations are done here in the States? Were the police incompetent? Underresourced?
Bogus and inflated accusations of domestic violence against men by women have become very common (it happened to me years back and I spent two days in jail before I could appear before a judge. The charge was later dismissed.) In my state, a person can be charged with domestic violence based on fear of imminent harm. A D.V. conviction places the convicted at a considerable disadvantage, legally. It's also worth mentioning that in 1994, the main paper here ran a story noting that something like 93% of all domestic violence charges brought in the county in '93 ended up being dismissed.
I think as time goes on, and word spreads among men about the crap that some women pull off so easily, that men are becoming increasingly wary about women. But publicity is all on the side of "victims" - alleged or real - like that female hip-hop artist, can't recall her name, who was beaten and then her boyfriend was charged.
Iconoclast at August 15, 2009 5:56 PM
If a man rapes a woman, I do not say all men are rapists. If a woman cries rape falsely, it does not mean all women do or that all women claiming to be victims of rape are lying. As far as 93% of domestic violence charges being dropped, that does not mean that those people were innocent. Domestic Violence, despite the claims of some people commenting, is not easily prosecuted and it is not usually prosecuted early on. I know that I am opening a whole can of worms here, but most victims of Domestic Violence do not report it until it has escalated dramatically. It is very typical of victims to recant their stories making it hard to make arrests let alone prosecute. Women that file false reports of DV or rape should be prosecuted because it is these woman that prevent the true victims, and yes there are true victims, from getting the proper help.
Kristen at August 15, 2009 6:05 PM
Lot of truth to what Kristen says.
A dismissed case does not mean a false allegation.
However, at a rate of 93%, one has to wonder.
Its easy to accept that Domestic Violence charges are often not pursued by its victims. Lets face it, its not like:
Date one: Sound thrashing.
followed by at its end:
"So...how about next Saturday night?"
No, Domestic abusers, however violent they may be at heart, don't typically just toss the partner into the deep end of it.
In every case that I've read, the victim was drawn into the web of violence & lies slowly, like the difference between jumping into a hot tub, and letting it heat up slowly with one in it.
Eventually they've no idea how they got to that point, and their perspective is so skewed they don't even realize that they're in their own private hell.
How that fucks with one's mind, draw your own conclusions.
But while that may account for a low level of prosecution...the accusation rate is nothing to sneeze at.
And lets face it, there are a lot of liars in this world.
Are there more liars than abusers? Absolutely.
But the difference here is that the female liar is automatically given credence even in the absense of evidence.
Robert at August 16, 2009 3:45 AM
The difficult thing for the cops is that if someone is claiming to be raped, they cannot be forced to take a rape screening kit because obviously a true victim may feel victimized all over again. That is also why I point out the case involving Roethlisberger. How can someone possibly prove a year or so later that a rape did or did not happen. It is her word against his. She's shaping up to look like a storyteller, but then again someone with money and power would be able to make her look that way. I don't believe her and I think she's looking for a payout, but what if I'm wrong and this girl did go to her employers and was afraid? The cops do not have an easy job with cases like this. But if proven to be wrong as this case was with the girl in England, she should be facing serious jail time.
Kristen at August 16, 2009 6:51 AM
Kristen is right, just because there is no conviction in a DV case doesn't mean the alleged perpetrator isn't guilty. Sometimes there is a desire to kiss and make up at play; often there isn't enough evidence. By the way, domestic violence cases can also be handled in most states' family courts. They are so numerous, I've heard, that the criminal and family courts often like to refer a charge to the other court when they arise.
I'm sure its also true that many of the convicted are not guilty. "Justice" is like that. I heard an account once of a guy who was convicted of a DV charge when, he claimed, he wasn't guilty, did some jail time or whatever. Afterwards, the guy said that if he had to do it all over again he'd have hit her, if we was going to be convicted regardless.
Re, "Women who file false accusations of DV or rape should be prosecuted ..." In theory, this is possible but courts are very uninterested in prosecuting perjury, due both to the difficulty of proof and the high incidence of perjury. Judges know that false/ inflated DV charges are very common, but it would be impolitic of them to say so publicly if they want to be reelected. They would draw the ire of advocates for DV victims. (Nicolle Simpson should have come forward.)
Another bad effect of the prevalence of false charges is that police, courts and jails are unnecessarily burdened at sizable public expense.
In my case, I realized after my ex's DV accusation years back that she'd made many attempts to provoke me prior to the contrived incident which led to my charge. Looking back, I'm surprised I didn't snap. (Also, 2 months before this happened she'd struck me with a lamp and I had photos of the welt. Maybe I should've gone to the police then but in my turmoil I didn't think about it.)
Grant Bower would have more options if he were in American courts. He could sue his accuser more easily. I read that in British civil courts, the petitioner has to pay the defendant's legal costs if a suit is unsuccessful. But if he's like most people he's probably so scarred, he just wants to move on. If you've ever dealt with courts, you get that way, mentally one doesn't want to revisit bad times past.
Iconoclast at August 16, 2009 6:49 PM
I would like to applaud the police for looking at the taped footage. That does not always happen in the US.
In the town I used to live in, there was a similar story. The man was too poor to make bail and spent 2 1/2 months in jail before his lawyer finally got a court order to look at a convenience store tape.
The DA and police never looked at the tape. Instead they tried to extort an guilty plea. He was originally charged with a crime that carried a 1 year sentence but, the day after he plead innocent, the DA upped the ante to 9 years.
Needless to say, the woman got away scot free.
Curtis at August 17, 2009 2:31 PM
This is why 3 things need to happen:
1. Anonymity for all involved, until such time as a conviction is obtained.
2. Law enforcement needs to conduct the investigation, gather evidence, and have the proof that something occurred before making an arrest.
3. Once an arrest is made, and the accused is put in jail, if the accusation is determined to have been made maliciously, then the accuser should be arrested for false imprisonment (that is usually a charge in a rape case). In most juridictions, filing a false police report is a misdemeanor. Due to the destructive nature of a rape charge, this should be a felony.
And compensation isn't limited to the U.K. There are many DV/Rape shelters in the U.S. that also give monetary assistance, that isn't required to be paid back upon revelation that the accusation is false.
Reward people for bad behavior, and you get more of that behavior.
E. Steven Berkimer at August 18, 2009 10:59 AM
My guess is that false accusations of rape are rare, although this account from England sure is startling. Here in the U.S., most prosecutors would probably be very reluctant to charge someone in an offense unless they were pretty sure they could get a conviction. Prosecutors are often overworked.
If a semen sample is obtained from the victim, these days with DNA testing, that works quite well in screening out suspects who aren't guilty.
Woe to the suspect who has to rely on a public defender to defend him in a case like this. A poorly-paid defender would probably never be able to defend someone like a real criminal lawyer.
Iconoclast at August 18, 2009 6:33 PM
Great article! Rape is typically in favor of females, but this interesting case shows another alternative. False rape is rare, though.
Also, E. Steven Berkimer made some clear points, I totally agreed with him.
Criminal Lawyer Fort Lauderdale at October 21, 2009 12:09 PM
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