news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/northamptonshire/7972627.stm

I know how this poor guy feels,being falsely accused at the moment myself.
She got 20 months for a false allegation.His life will have been ruined over the last 7 months.He's lost his partner,and only sees his kids at weekends.No doubt he'll have been suicidal since the start,cooped up in solitary confinement,not knowing what's going on.

It does however show how a woman of obviously bad repute only has to open her mouth for the police and the CPS to go mad,and fall completely on the accuser's side,while disregarding the accused's rights.
Just for the record she's been drunk,and using cocaine at the time she agreed to consentual sex with the guy.
We need a system like the French for this type of case.Using an investigative magistrate to go through the evidence before charge.And give them power to charge false accusers at source.The tide may be turning,but it hasn't turned nearly enough.

Innocent Accused wrote:

We need a system like the French for this type of case.Using an investigative magistrate to go through the evidence before charge.And give them power to charge false accusers at source.The tide may be turning,but it hasn't turned nearly enough.

I said the same thing to my barrister back in 1994, but he scoffed at the idea. Mind you, he was an idiot. There is a strong resistance to change within the legal system, from both sides.

Although I feel sorry for you, if you have been falsely accused,the fact is that most rapes do not lead to a conviction, in fact most aren't even reported. For every false accusation there are many rapes that go unpunished.

But many, many more borderline misunderstandings, drunken or drugged madness later regetted, confused consent... "rape" has, like so many words, become a confused and misused word.

I felt "raped" when my house was searched for no good reason.

I always wonder how people know about rapes which are unreported. If they are known of, then they must have been reported to someone.

I also heard a claim that 60,000 cases of abuse of the elderly go unreported each year. How do they know this?

We still need to get the legal system back to basics. Burden of proof and a presumption of innocence. Some guilty may indeed go free, but that is less of a concern than innocent people being wrongly convicted. Once a crime has been committed, it cannot be undone, and maybe the culprit has been so freaked by the arrest and trial that he will never do such a thing again - but if we convict the innocent then we commit a further crime (imo) and destroy yet another life.