What is the link between an actor, a publicist and a builder from Lancashire?
Bill Roach has been accused of raping a girl of 15 in 1967. Max Clifford has been charged with 11 counts of indecent assault between 1966 and 1985. Both men are highly public figures and both have vehemently protested their innocence.
Their accusers have legal anonymity.
Jason McCue, 34, was falsely accused by two teenage girls of ‘flashing’ at them in the street. They were convicted of perverting the course of justice and jailed for eight months jail by Preston Crown Court on Tuesday 30th April 2012 according to the Lancashire Evening Post.
The 18-year-olds Ella Cooper, of Sheffield Drive, Preston, and Lucie Rhimes, of Pear Tree Road, Chorley, made up their malicious allegation to police in a spiteful attempt to ruin Mr McCue as part of a long-running family dispute.
Mr McCue, of Nelson Crescent, Lea, said: “I’ve been through 10 months of pure hell.
“The false accusations have caused mayhem for me and my family, and the doctor has had to sign me off with depression. Things like this can ruin a man’s life and people should know the massive impact it’s had.
Speaking after the hearing, DS Peter Glover from Preston CID, said: “I hope that these sentences serve as a warning to people who think it is acceptable to make false allegations against innocent parties and lie to the police.”
But will they? False accusations of a sexual nature can so easily be made and women appear to be especially adept at it. With the need for corroborating evidence having been abolished in the 1990s, it now comes down to her word against his. How many innocent men are in jail today after being convicted because they were less plausible in the witness box than their accuser?
Mr McCue was only saved from a conviction because Lucie Rhimes confessed to her father and he took her straight to the police. If she had kept her nerve, it would have been two against one and Jason McCue would be in jail today and on the sex offenders’ register.
Exod 20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Deut 19:18 And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother; 19 Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you. 20 And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.
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“a warning to people who think it is acceptable to make false allegations against innocent parties” .
Surely nobody really thinks it is “acceptable”, any more than criminals believe that burglary is “acceptable”.
I’m with Stephen on this one. You only have to listen to BBC Woman’s Hour, or read many a newspaper, to see that a 20% conviction rate for rape (or whatever it is) is assumed to be proof that 80% of the men are “getting away with it”. Women always seem to assume that the men accused by their “sisters” are guilty, and it is frankly nice to have a case drawn to our attention where the women accusers were shown to be in the wrong and imprisoned.
Strangely, Stuart Hall was vehemently protesting his innocence after his arrest; now he’s changed his tune and is pleading guilty. Just because these men say that they are innocent doesn’t automatically mean that they are and doesn’t mean that their alleged victims are lying.
Your assumption that every man accused of rape is due to a manipulative woman shows how little you actually know about the process. Or is this just your way of refuting claims made by your ex wife ?
But of course, we’ll never know – as you’ll never publish this comment !
No one will ever know how many false accusations are made, but we do know they are easy to make. As Rox says, the number of allegations resulting in a conviction is low.
The Independent said in January: ‘100,000 assaults. 1,000 rapists sentenced. Shockingly low conviction rates revealed’ but runs with the feminist idea that all the women were telling the truth. Their statistics come from ‘new research by the Ministry of Justice, the Home Office and the Office for National Statistics.’
On the other hand, as the Guardian would editorialise, the Guardian said last month: ‘Rape conviction rate at an all-time high CPS statistics reveal conviction rate is currently at 63% as prosecutors respond to claims too few cases appear in court.’. It quotes the CPS and says: ‘In raw figures, there were 3,692 prosecutions for rape last year, resulting in 2,333 convictions.’
So is the conviction rate 1%, 6% (the oft-quoted figure) or over 50% and rising? Statistician Nigel Hawkes writing in the Independent says it is about the same as the rest of Europe. The Daily Telegraph reported in 2010 on Baroness Stern’s report, one of whose findings was that as many as 10% of accusations were false.
Don’t worry, as a look at the Ninth Commandment section of ‘Britain in Sin’ will show, I have been concerned about these miscarriages of justice for many years. The need for corroborating evidence (in other words, real evidence) was a serious impediment to the feminist desire to see lots of men convicted of rape. It was abolished in the Criminal Justice & Public Order Act 1994.
I don’t know how much you actually know ‘about the process’ but Jane, we still all want to know if you are Jane Glover the famous conductress? Myself, I reckon that if you weren’t, you would immediately say so. On the other hand, maybe you are just a secretary in London with a laptop called Gus. No shame in that, of course. Or in directing musicians.
Believing that somebody is telling the truth when reporting a crime isn’t a feminist idea, Stephen. It’s basic humanity.
That isn’t how the criminal justice system works. Someone makes an allegation and it is investigated. An allegation against another must be viewed with great caution and evidence gathered, the guilty properly convicted, false witnesses dealt with:
Deuteronomy 19:15 One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.
16 If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong;
17 Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days;
18 And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother;
19 Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you.
20 And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.
Given that the Bill Roach & Max Clifford cases are still undergoing judicial process, how sensible is it to be inviting comment on them here ?
As sensible as actually commenting, Jane.
WOW LOL !
I’m glad I settled for ” 20% or whatever it is”, and didn’t waste time trying to pinpoint a reliable figure.
I never really thought that this Jane Glover was a famous conductress, Benjamin Britten’s mate. She is more likely to have been a bus conductress, if she is old enough, which she probably is.
She could be younger than you think, Rox.
Lets not forget that FOR THIS REASON HE CAME, He came not to condemn the world but to save it. I say the harvest is ripe and we should pray more laborers unto it.!
ALL HAVE FALLEN SHORT of the GLORY OF GOD
Hi Stephen,
I think your work is great, and myself and my husband are supportors of Christian Voice.
I am shocked though, that you are implying these two men are also innocent!!! I have read Britain in Sin and I do agree with it, in terms of getting stronger evidence before conviction. However, to imply they are innocent without knowing can’t be right either.
I tend to think they are not. When a student Rolf Harris came to our uni, he made some very inappropriate comments about me in front of about 50 others. From what I saw of him I tend to think it is true. I also always wondered why he came to such a little event and stayed a long time, there were lots of you 11 year old girls around though! I know you didn’t mention him but you could have. He is in the same mould as these two men.
Hi Toni, and thanks for your support.
That would have been an awful experience you describe. We’ll have to distance ourselves of course from your comments about Mr Harris and your linkage of the behaviour you allege with the cases of Mr Roach and Mr Clifford. To be fair, you know nothing about either of them and yet if I am able to be accused of jumping to one conclusion, you are jumping to the opposite!
This is the problem: Why were the serious allegations made now against these men not made at the time? One might suggest that the alleged victims were afraid or shocked and only felt emboldened by the Savile enquiry. On the other hand, there may be some band-wagon jumping going on. After so long, and with so little evidence, how is anyone expected to get a fair trial?
It is quite common in this terribly difficult area of sexual relations for a woman to consent to some activity in the heat of the moment only to feel differently about it in the morning and make an accusation of rape.
The Criminal Justice & Public Order Act 1994 abolished the requirement in English Law for corroborating evidence in the case of sexual offences. In Britain in Sin we reported that a man released from prison in 1995 after serving part of a sentence for rape. His alleged victim wrote to him and apologised for making it all up.
A more newsworthy case was that of Mr Owen Oyston. Many people will regard him as a philanderer who got what was coming to him, but the fact remains that his enemies had to wait for the law to be changed before a case could be brought against him; if corroborating evidence had still been required, his seduction of impressionable young women could never have been established as “rape.” Indeed, the horrendous crime of rape – a capital offence in the eyes of God – is devalued by such cases.
Some of these alleged offences relate to girls under 16, who are not considered legally capable of consenting to sexual intercourse. For you to suggest that they just changed their mind in the morning is truly, truly sickening. It is attitudes like this which stop girls and young women being taken seriously when they do come forward to report abuse.
Alleged offences.
What “inappropriate comments” ? Were you alone singled out amongst 50 others ? Why ?
For once, Stephen, we are in complete agreement. In the wake of the Savile scandal we have embarked on a witch-hunt in which celebrities can be freely and anonymously accused. I find it hard to believe of Rolf Harris and Nigel Evans too, but all that the accused have with which to defend themselves is denial, because it’s impossible to prove a negative.
“When I get older losing my hair, Many years from now, Will you still be sending me a valentine, …..When I’m sixty-four?”
No, you poor fool, she’ll be suing you when you’re eighty-four, and you won’t have a leg to stand on.
ill informed, as far removed from christs compassion as you can be.
try reading the following, starting with kier stamners DPP report on the level of false reporting which show that false accusations of sexual violence are far less than any other serious crime, (less than 2%) yet these are the ones yourselves and society focus on as we would rather believe it is not happening on such a widespread basis. By supporting these myths, you silence victims and survivors, leaving them isolated, believing noone will believe them.
Why do victims take years to come forward? If you would like to take the time to contact one of your local rape crisis centres,I am sure they would be happy to inform you and raise awarenesss. One of the reasons it takes years to come forward is because of the myths you are perpetuating here on this page.
1 in 4 women, 1 in 6 men will have experienced sexual violence or abuse and will be in your churches suffering in silence as they feel they wont be believed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/mar/13/rape-investigations-belief-false-accusations
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2013/05/07/british-study-shows-false-rape-claims-are-complicated-matters/