quillette.com/2019/07/25/the-many-lies-of-carl-beech/

"The Guardian spoke, unusually, for the majority when it ran an extraordinary editorial comparing him to Pol Pot, and calling for a public ceremony of commination, as “a ritual expression of public condemnation and disgust.” The institutions with which he had been associated—mainly hospitals and the BBC—fell over themselves to apologise for his behaviour. Accounts of Savile’s wickedness were collated in various official reports and they were all accepted, without question, by a media now as indignant about his criminality as it had been fulsome in its praise. Anyone—and there were a few—who dared to question so much as a single individual account was considered beyond the pale, even though some of the allegations against him bordered on the incredible."

There is an excellent comment under that article, made by someone with the nickname AJ. I agree very strongly with all the points he makes, except using evidence of previous sexual behaviour against a defendant, which I think should never be allowed in any circumstances. In fact, I've made many of the same points myself, in posts here.

I've corrected the many typing errors, for ease of reading.

The problem was not principally created by the Jimmy Saville scandal, doubtless this exacerbated the situation. It created an initial impetus to Carl Beech to falsely claim to be a victim and provided the framework within which he was rewarded and encouraged in his false accusations.
However this ignores the continuing reduction in the legal protections for an accused and the ongoing campaign to further weaken those protections, to vilify and demonise all men as dangerous, sexual predators and to convince society as a whole that those accused are guilty simple because they are accused.
The situation is continuing to worsen and is not improved when clear cases of false accusations are revealed as in the Carl Beech case or the many collapsed rape prosecutions in which phone evidence was not properly disclosed.

The fundamental issue is a political ideology which sees any man accused of a sex crime by a woman, who is not convicted as a failure and an injustice. This is fundamentally discriminatory and bigoted but despite eeing the viewpoint of only a small minority it is this minority who are driving legal and procedural change. It is this small group who changed the law so that allegations need not be strikingly similar to be tried together, that removed the anonymity of accused, that prevented an accused using evidence of an accusers previous sexual history in their defence and that introduced an official guideline that the ‘victim’ should always be believed.

Whenever some shocking injustice or case of false accusations is revealed instead of a consideration of how such an injustice can be prevented there is a campaign to close the "loophole." Ched Evans was only freed because some people broke the law to name his accuser, as a result a man came forward with evidence that the accuser had previously acted in ways very similar to that claimed by Ched Evans and the judge ruled that exceptionally that evidence could be admitted. Instead of a consideration of whether anonymity from accused and accuser should be removed so that as much evidence as possible will be gathered and that in a he said she said situation evidence of previous sexual encounters for both parties is critical in determining credibility and should be admitted.There was a campaign to forbid the evidence that proved Ched’s innocence to be forbidden in all cases. There is currently a campaign in Britain against the police investigating an accuser's mobile phone history for relevant evidence after such evidence revealed a series of allegations to be malicious and false.

We have to recognise that there is a campaign to undermine the ability for men to have fair trials and we should campaign for an end to anonymity for both accused and accuser, the admittance of evidence of past behaviour for both parties, and the prevention of accusation trawling by returning to the rule that only strikingly similar accusations can be tried together. The fundamental principles of the presumption of innocence and that all parties should be treated respectively but investigated impartially need to be reasserted.

More broadly society has to stop feting victims and celebrating victimhood and weakness. Victims deserve sympathy and support but it should not be something people aspire to and celebrate. If someone is a victim of a crime then it should be recognised that there is a public duty to help prosecute that crime and that in order for justice to be done there will need to be some examination of some aspects of their life. What the accused is subject to and the damage to their reputation will be far worse.

I do not feel at all hopeful. Things will continue to get worse and men will continue to be at very high risk if they should become the target of a false accusation.

"More broadly society has to stop feting victims and celebrating victimhood and weakness."

I couldn't agree more. We have reached a point where some drink-sozzled woman can whine on social media that she is falling apart and can't cope and the general consensus in the comments is that 'you are a strong woman'.

the article was written by barrister Matthew Scott who has ironically been caught up in so much of the mania..as a prosecutor in the case involving the brothel Madame who rediculously claimed she had supplied Ted Heath with boys and threatened to out him and that was why the case was dropped...while Scott revealed as complete rubbish giving the real reasons charges were dropped..

..and as a parent who had sent his children to a North London school caught up int he ludicrous "Satanic Pedo Ring" that was "importing babies and eating them in rituals every Thursday"

There must be eminent powerful legal figures who recognise how this entire shebang has gotten out of control.