Government response to e-petition for equal rights regarding rape accusations

Rape-equal-right - epetition response

The original petition;

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to assign equal anonymous rights to both rape victim and accused until verdict is given.”

Details of Petition:

“It seems more than obvious that whilst rape is a very serious crime, being accused of rape is just as serious. With rape, the stain of being accused does not wash away with the verdict, it stains a character and prevents an equal footing guarenteed by law, especially since until the verdict is given, the accused is innocent. There is no plausible argument for releasing the name of the accused as this does nothing to further justice, but only serves to punish them outside of the judicial system. The only punishment for rape, should be passed down by a judge, not by newspapers, their peers, or their employers. Therefore revealing their identity is an unjust punishment without basis in english law. We therefore request that ALL parties to a rape case are anonymous, until a verdict is reached.”

The response is as follows, with my comments;

The Government does not agree that releasing the name of an accused is a punishment and does not agree that there should be anonymity for defendants in rape cases. The Government is satisfied that the law as it stands is operating satisfactorily and has no plans to change it.

Well it is not satisfactory for the ever increasing numbers of men now finding themselves the victim of fraudulent rape accusations, is it?

Complainants in rape cases are granted anonymity in order to encourage them to come forward. The potential harm and distress caused by publicity could discourage complainants from bringing proceedings and thus enable very serious offenders to escape justice.

And what of the very real harm and distress caused by tarnishing innocent men with the horrible brush of ‘rapist’. Men have their lives threatened, been physically attacked, their families and friends attacked, livelihoods ruined, even committed suicide, purely because they are not offered the protection of anonymity until proven guilty.

Note I said proven guilty, not proven innocent, which is what this government policy seems to assume for men in this situation. So much for equality and so much for the Rule of Law.

Defendants in rape cases are not properly comparable with complainants but with defendants in other kinds of criminal case. Defendants accused of other criminal offences do not have anonymity, regardless of the offence involved.

Correct in a way, defendants in rape cases are not properly comparable. Defendants, when their name is plastered all over the media, have their lives destroyed regardless of the outcome. The damage is already done.

This is about trying to make examples of innocent men to please feminists. This is about one rule for the accuser and another for the accused. This is about the government doing its best to encourage rape accusations, whether they be true or not and pushing for convictions, whether the man is guilty or not, for higher statistics which inevitably equals more laws and regulations over peoples’ behaviour and more money for feminist, man and family hating quangos.

This is about demonising all men as rapists, instilling fear and encouraging female mistrust of all men.

This is state-sanctioned misandry for power and political gain, nothing else.

This is the real face of feminism.