The Rights Of Man

TIME TO CHANGE LAW ON NAMING ALLEGED RAPE OFFENDERS UNLESS GUILTY

The case last week affecting Aftab Ahmed and his family shows the law needs to be changed on naming men accused of rape unless they are found guilty (link), (link), (link), (link) and (link).

A teenage girl wrecked the life and reputation of father-of-two Mr Ahmed from Shipley, Yorkshire when she accused him of raping her when he drove her home in his taxi. He could no longer work as a taxi driver and he had to sell his family home to make ends meet.

Even though she realised later that she had not been sexually assualted (she had been blind drunk) she refused to drop the complaint that she had previously made. After admitting her lies 18 months later, she received a four month sentence which under the 'wonderful' justice system we have, actually means two months. She remains anonymous.

The problem on this subject is that if a man is accused, he is named and therefore his reputation is automatically ruined, even if he is not guilty. This case is just one of a long list of similar cases.

It is clear that the Law need to be changed so it is fair, which British Law is meant to be. The complainant should remain anonymous but so should the man, unless he is found guilty. The government were meant to be looking at this (link) following the Warren Blackwell case but nothing has been heard since.

It is time the Law was made fair and equal.

GOVERNMENT TO PARTIALLY RECONSIDER ANONYMITY LAW

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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