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Topic History of: Ben Sullivan - latest example of the exploding false allegations industry Max. showing the last 5 posts - (Last post first)
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honey!oh sugar sugar.
Gnomo wrote: Hopefully Ben Sullivan's situation and campaign will result in the law being changed back to anonymity for all - accusers and accused.
If the law protects the accuser, it MUST equally protect the accused.
Publicity AFTER a guilty verdict is acceptable, but certainly not before.
I don't think publicity after conviction is always helpful either, because it very often identifies the victim.
JK2006
Good and fair points; yes it WAS happening to innocent "ordinary" people in the past but someone (two days before the government was forced by Europe to equalise the ages of consent) realised 14 years ago that local coverage was OK but how about trying it with a national celebrity and getting national coverage. Yes the police DO have to get CPS permission to charge but they would find a way around that I'm sure. And, of course, there's always (helpful) Twitter!
Gnomo
Hopefully Ben Sullivan's situation and campaign will result in the law being changed back to anonymity for all - accusers and accused.
If the law protects the accuser, it MUST equally protect the accused.
Publicity AFTER a guilty verdict is acceptable, but certainly not before.
Jim
JK2006 wrote: You'll notice Ben asks for anonymity until charged? That won't work as the police will simply charge people on arrest (they can then decide not to proceed after investigation).
Are you sure it won't help at all? There surely must be some procedural ramifications to placing a charge. Besides, don't they need to consult with the CPS before charging: likelihood of conviction, public interest test and all that.
Jim
[T]his is happening to hundreds of innocent men and women now - not just high profile celebrities.
How can you be sure it wasn't happening to hundreds of innocent men (and women?) all along but we didn't hear about it because they weren't celebrities.
The community of the wrongly accused (COTWA) documents a long history of false allegations of rape or sexual abuse mostly against men. www.cotwa.info/