One of the most difficult and sensitive subjects is the area of rape and anonymity.
The Daily Mail (Link)and The Independent (Link)ran stories on 10th January about Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General who confirmed that "the Government were actively considering whether the law on compainant anonymity in sex offiences needed amending" (The Independent).
Both articles highlighted the case of Warren Blackwell was freed by the Court of Appeal after the women who had accused him rape had a history of making false accusations. Of course, rape is hideous with the sentence of those convincted are not strong enough and certainly those found guilty should serve their full term and not be let out after half their time has been served.
However, the balance between the anonymity for a woman and the lack of anonymity for a man once charged should be reviewed. This lack of anonymity for a man if he is found not guilty means that he is effectively tainted anyway. Many men have suffered from this.
The Government, however, is only looking at changing the law so that a woman who has a history of making false accusations can be named.
The problem with this is that firstly it does not tackle the stigma of accusation for any man found innocent and secondly, there is the strong possiblity that some victims may be put off from taking their case forward. The latter argument will be used against the Government by women's groups and then the law surrounding anonymity will not be looked at for a long while.
A more rounded solution would be for the defence to be allowed to state in court that the accuser has made a number of false accusations in the past, if true, and is a matter of police record. The crucial point is that there must be a history of false accusations and these must be shown to have been clearly false. If the accused is found innocent then the women should automatically remain anonymous unless there is this history.
The accused should also be anonymous unless convicted. This would not affect the possiblity of women being afraid of coming forward and would mean that innocent men would no longer be stigmatised for the rest of their lives.
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