British actor Michael Le Vell cleared of child sex charges; co-star says "‘Maybe now we can finally have a debate about false accusation. I suggest reading Arthur Miller’s The Crucible as a starting point.’"

fozzie1984 · 2013-09-11T10:57:11+00:00

there was some disgusting twitter hashtags about him trending yesterday.one feminist saying women "just dont lie" about things like that and when i pointed out women have been jailed for false accusations she blamed male biased courtrooms.made me so mad

NeuroticIntrovert · 2013-09-11T15:33:00+00:00

This is the part of The Crucible that I think is most poignant:

Hale: Excellency, I have signed seventy-two death warrants; I am a minister of the Lord, and I dare not take a life without there be a proof so immaculate no slightest qualm of conscience may doubt it.

Danforth: Mr. Hale, you surely do not doubt my justice.

Hale: I have this morning signed away the soul of Rebecca Nurse, Your Honor. I’ll not conceal it, my hand shakes yet as with a wound! I pray you, sir, this argument let lawyers present to you.

Danforth: Mr. Hale, believe me; for a man of such terrible learning you are most bewildered - I hope you will forgive me. I have been thirty-two year at the bar, sir, and I should be con-founded were I called upon to defend these people. Let you consider, now - (To Proctor and the others:) And I bid you all do likewise. In an ordinary crime, how does one defend the accused? One calls up witnesses to prove his innocence. But witchcraft is ipso facto, on its face and by its nature, an invisible crime, is it not? Therefore, who may possibly be witness to it? The witch and the victim. None other. Now we cannot hope the witch will accuse herself; granted? Therefore, we must rely upon her victims - and they do testify, the children certainly do testify. As for the witches, none will deny that we are most eager for all their confessions. Therefore, what is left for a lawyer to bring out? I think I have made my point. Have I not?

Hale: But this child claims the girls are not truthful, and if they are not -

Danforth: That is precisely what I am about to consider, sir. What more may you ask of me? Unless you doubt my probity?

Rape is not necessarily what Danforth would call an "invisible crime", but it often is, in the sense that the only witnesses are the victim and the accused. Physical evidence begins to decay within minutes of the crime, and so delays in reporting tend to result in a lack of physical evidence.

In absence of physical evidence, Danforth (and some rather powerful voices in our society) would argue that since we cannot expect the rapist to accuse themself, we must rely on the testimony of the victim, and the only relevant determination to be made by judge or jury is whether or not the accuser is being truthful.

Meanwhile, the accused can be identified publicly, the accuser cannot.

Members of the public can come forward and make new accusations against the accused, but they cannot come forward and provide evidence regarding the accuser's credibility.

Certain ways of questioning the accuser's credibility are forbidden in the courtroom.

The accused will be advised by their lawyers not to take the stand, and while their silence isn't supposed to be used to infer guilt, it still turns a case from "he said, she said" into "she said, he shouldn't get to tell his side."

We have people saying to always believe the victim.

After all this, we see people presumed guilty in the court of public opinion, both before and after a legal verdict. This is not surprising. If we assume the accuser is truthful, and that the very act of questioning their credibility is offensive... what is left for a lawyer to bring out?

andeathSWE · 2013-09-11T11:03:22+00:00

All people who bring false claims to court should have that on their record.

nigglereddit · 2013-09-11T13:16:13+00:00

Having read as much as I could find about this case I find it impossible to see how it even got to court.

There was apparently no physical evidence, the complainant's story was riddled with serious problems and she contradicted herself constantly and there was no corroboration from anyone else.

Yes, it is time for a discussion about false accusation. And part of that should be a discussion of rape hysteria and how it can lead reasonable people to drag an innocent man into court and the media based on nothing more than one person's accusation.

Our legal system is specifically set up to stop any one person having that power, be they lord or peasant. We urgently need to discuss how it came to be that those safeguards were ignored and circumvented.

2013-09-11T16:09:17+00:00

Congratulations, Michael!

On a side note, though, I am a little peeved at this article, as well as the general reaction people have given. It reeks too much.

It's like when someone has committed suicide, and their Facebook profile is still up. People who hardly knew the person or even cared for them suddenly have loads to say about how "great friends (we) were all along! Miss you soooo much!" It's kind of sad. I can guarantee some of these people had doubts in their hearts about Michael's innocence, thanks to rampant SJWs making their Wicker Men.

PierceHarlan · 2013-09-11T17:47:45+00:00

Hey, Michael -- friend, pal -- virtually no celebrities who've been wrongly accused bother to speak out on behalf of the wrongly accused. I hope you are different. I can understand why few want to become involved -- they want to put it behind them. The most prominent victim who supported our work at COTWA/False Rape Society eventually asked that we remove his name from our site -- not because he didn't approve of what we did, he just didn't want people to be reminded of what he'd been accused of.

I feel sorry for them, but I need their help, and I wish somebody would step forward.

xofy · 2013-09-11T23:07:06+00:00

Tried to read the article but all I got was a screenful of boobs. Picture editors are a mischievous bunch of sods, aren't they?

bantam83 · 2013-09-11T16:12:56+00:00

TIL who Helen Flanagan is. DAMN.

NeuroticIntrovert · 2013-09-11T15:32:54+00:00

So.... is there any punishment for the false accuser?

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