P19 of The Sun - Elizabeth Wilkinson 21... got a year... these tiny stories are getting to a point where there are several a week - but most false accusers escape discovery.

Thanks JK,

I found two links to this story on google news.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-11266276
www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/83859...made_up_rape_jailed/

I must say I think what this woman did, though reprehensible, is less bad than what that custody sergeant did to that poor woman in wiltshire. He got six months, she got a year.

It's also interesting that the judge in this case was a woman. I suspect they will tend to take a dimmer view of these things because they see it instinctively as a betrayal of the sisterhood, or something, and will be less sympathetic.

I'm thinking maybe it would be worth making an online collaborative database to record these documented cases of false allegation. Just a thought! There are feminists out there saying they never, or almost never, happen. I think we ought to get the facts straight.

Best Wishes,
Jim

It certainly should be front page news.

What a terrible and evil thing to do. She deserves jail.

Jim wrote:
Thanks JK,

I found two links to this story on google news.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-11266276
www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/83859...made_up_rape_jailed/

I must say I think what this woman did, though reprehensible, is less bad than what that custody sergeant did to that poor woman in wiltshire. He got six months, she got a year.

It's also interesting that the judge in this case was a woman. I suspect they will tend to take a dimmer view of these things because they see it instinctively as a betrayal of the sisterhood, or something, and will be less sympathetic.

I'm thinking maybe it would be worth making an online collaborative database to record these documented cases of false allegation. Just a thought! There are feminists out there saying they never, or almost never, happen. I think we ought to get the facts straight.

Best Wishes,
Jim

Sorry Jim, but destroying a man's reputation and deliberately trying to put him in jail for years and the sex offenders register for life is as bad as it gets. These women should be getting more than a year inside. They should get exactly the same as the likely sentance that the man would have gotten.

You're exactly right about the reasons why these false-accusers are getting jailed nowadays. One things for sure, in no way will it be for reasons of justice for men.

The database suggestion is an excellent idea.

Thanks Blackit,

Rather than imposing heavier penalties on false accusers, though they may be justified, my solution would be to return to a traditional burden of proof which requires more than eye-witness testimony alone. Ever since the requirement was relaxed, I think during President Clinton's tenure in US to make rape convictions easier, this sort of thing was inevitable. He himself, of course, came to suffer from it in the long run.

Thanks also for the encouragement regarding my little database plan. Maybe I'll look into it.

Best Wishes,
Jim

I agree with you Jim. Sentencing is not the way to "prevent" crime.

If silly cases of False Allegations did not get to court ( e.g no compelling evidence and by that DNA or Caught In the Act would be compelling - and make it a 5 year rule for historic cases ) then sentencing for false allegations would hardly ever be needed.

It is an epidemic now.

Two cracking suggestions from Jim - the database, and a return to a proper standard/burden of proof rather than ridiculous he said she said pantomine crap.

Is the database something JK might like to host as a section here? Or what about a facebook group? We could post links as and when we spot them because, as noted above, these crimes rarely receive high profile coverage.

Great ideas and SJB has come up with some good ways as well.

Thanks SJB,

My (very formative) idea would be to do it as a spreadsheet in google docs and then attach it to a form so that anybody who wants to could come by and add (but not edit) information. Then at the same time a couple of nominated users could be given editing privileges to go in and tidy it up, deleting duplicates, reformatting or whatever.

The resulting spreadsheet could then be viewed as a spreadsheet or queried by a server-side process to produce a more nicely formatted page of tabulated data. I'm not quite so confident about this second part, but the first part would be very easy to do.

Don't know whether this will make sense to non-technical readers, but since several others have encouraged me now, I'm seriously thinking about going ahead and giving this thing a look-see.

Best Wishes,
Jim

Jim wrote:


Don't know whether this will make sense to non-technical readers,


It was Greek to me, sorry.

Isn't Wikipedia another place where an article could be maintained and updated?

Greetings to all,

It's been a while since anyone posted to this thread. If you recall I think we were talking about an online database of false rape allegations. I'm ashamed to say I still haven't done a thing (not a jot) on this proposal, but I did warn you I'm lazy.

In the meantime, however, while following the Egyptian situation, I notice they've done something like what I had in mind in order to collate a record of their dead. Some board contributors appeared confused about what I was suggesting. Perhaps their example will help to clarify.

It's here: spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlikD1W...U&hl=en_GB#gid=0

Note it doesn't use a web front end, just a basic spreadsheet that everyone can read online. Maybe that's good enough. Seems like it would be a pretty good model for us.

Anyway, I'm off to lazyville again. Sorry. I'm pretty much obsessed with what's going on in Egypt.

Best Wishes,
Jim

I'm a bit hesitant about this idea Jim.

The internet is an odd place. You can set up a stream of information and an opposer can do likewise which either cancels out your claims or draws attention when not wanted.

Don't know the answer though.

Which is odd for me.