Ridiculous situation JK.False accusers ruin lives. The trouble is you could have the opposite situation as Iran does where if a woman/girl has been raped, she has to prove she was raped by getting 4 unrelated males to speak up for her ! If she was unmarried she just gets a few hundred lashes and a couple of years in jail. If she was married, adultery is punishable with a noose around the neck.

We need to find somewhere inbetween but until people stop telling lies to newspapers and anyone who wants to listen, that might be rather difficult.

and remember Justin Fashanu..a lovely man with everything going for him but so many things against him-black, gay in a straight sport, succesful but an ideal candidate for blackmail.

Sexual allegations are the easiest to make sadly. In addition the hardest to prove.

This lad has had his life ruined and will never trust again.

There is a growing number of victims of false allegations.

But additionally according to Childline there is a growing number of children who call them to say they have been raped - over 6,000 last year. Most of them I would expect in their own homes - in their own beds - and possibly by a family member.

So a false allegation creates TWO victims - first the person the allegation was directed at but secondly the real victim who has less chance of being believed.

What an awful society we have created.

And still the media, Childline and everybody say "always believe a child".

Do they never make things up?

I must be living in cloud cuckoo land. I find it quite possible if not likely that many invent and many others mistake situations.

It's a proven fact that children make up allegations, especially when they are given the right incentive. We've gone from taking a child's word with a pinch of salt to the other extreme of believing them without question. Every allegation must be investigated, but this should be done impartially, sensitively and by an examination of factual evidence. I'm still amazed that people can be convicted on the word of one accuser without any supporting evidence. When the Sex Pistols recorded 'No man is innocent' I doubt they thought that this would be the view of the legal system a few years later. Each defendant enters court as guilty and must prove their innocence. King Alfred must be rolling in his grave.

I will just add that often the false accuser ends up believing their own story in the end - they look distraught and upset, almost as if it had really happened to them. Perhaps something did happen in their past(unrelated), but they could do nothing about it so they made up a false claim for something they could possibly win.

RT