Woman jailed for defending her rapist

This makes me sick to my stomach

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The 28-year-old was sentenced to eight-months in prison on Friday for perverting the course of justice – not for lying about the rape, but for lying by saying it never happened.

I have no words for how horrific this is.

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The jailed woman has never received any counselling for her ordeal, said the sister. "Victim Support said they couldn't be involved because she was the perpetrator [accused of lying to police]. Now she is in jail, away from her kids."

...

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And it seems unlikely her husband will ever stand trial on the rape charges: the charges against him have been dropped, the Crown Prosecution Service said today.

Ugh, I've seen this case. It's absolutely horrible that she ends up in prison for this. I really don't think I have any more to say on the matter.

*ogles article* I... what... the fucking fuck?!

"Yeah, so she didn't have any counseling and backed out because people who were supposed to be family (if only by marriage) pressured her into it, so we are sticking her into jail and leaving her young children in the care of the abusive asshole who ripped her clothes off within their view! THIS MAKES PERFECT SENSE!"

Lying to the police: A more grievous crime than rape. Thanks for clearing that up, Judge Rogers.

WELL AT LEAST THE HUSBAND'S LIFE WASN'T RUINED BY A RAPE ALLEGATION

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The woman's solicitor told the Guardian that in September, the husband had been arrested after breaking his way into the house in the early hours of the morning. He was released on conditional bail, forbidding him from going near her or the house, but the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to press charges. The restraining order was lifted on 28 October – the day of the latest alleged attack.

Mm, that restraining order and conditional bail certainly achieved something!

Well, technically they did, if he broke in after the restraining order was lifted at midnight. That's like saying a jail term does nothing if the ex-prisoner commits a crime a few hours after being released.

Oh yeah, lest anyone start complaining because I'm not mentioning the topic at hand (lol WGW), punishing victims who have been bullied into retracting their accusations is bad.

Sutremaine wrote:

Well, technically they did, if he broke in after the restraining order was lifted at midnight. That's like saying a jail term does nothing if the ex-prisoner commits a crime a few hours after being released.

Not exactly. If someone is jailed for robbing a bank, they are incapable of robbing banks for the duration of their sentence. If they re-offend upon release, they may not have learned their lesson, but at least for a time banks were actually safe from this person. Now if someone has a restraining order placed against them, it does nothing to stop them from cheerfully ignoring it and causing whatever harm to the victim(s) that they wish.

"Please send the police, my ex-husband is here to kill me! I have a restraining order against him!" doesn't get the cops to show up any faster than "Please send the police, my ex-husband is here to kill me!"

Not exactly, true, but if he were ignoring the order entirely, it's one heck of a coincidence that he chose to break in a couple of hours after the order expired anyway.

You've got to wonder about the sort of mind that thinks rape and breaking and entering are fine, but finds breaking a court order to be too much. I guess he considers himself a law-abiding member of society who only acts within his rights.

She's been freed

Lord Chief Justice said:

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Ordering her immediate release today at the royal courts of justice, the lord chief justice, Lord Judge, said the judiciary had a duty of "compassion for a woman who has already been victimised". Quashing her sentence, he instead gave her a community sentence and a supervision order for two years.

He said the woman had been in an abusive relationship for nine years and had only lied because her husband had put pressure on her to do so. "It was due to the fear of repercussions from him that she agreed [to retract the original allegations]," said Judge, head of the judiciary in England and Wales.

There is an important distinction between making a false allegation of rape and making a false retraction of a rape allegation, he said. Both constituted a perversion of the course of justice, but they were not necessarily to be punished in the same way.

Nice to see some sense there.