By VennerRoad, 14th Jul 2016
False rape allegations are usually the result of artifice, but sometimes they can result from delusions.
CCTV evidence from the Mark Pearson case.
On December 3, 2014, two people brushed past each other at London’s Waterloo Station, one of countless such close encounters at that station that day. Mark Pearson thought nothing of this woman nor probably of any of the other people he brushed past on his way to and from work. When he was arrested the following February, he thought and continued to think this was a case of mistaken identity, because he had been accused of digitally penetrating the victim – an offence that is now charged as rape.
When the CCTV was viewed, it showed the two of them passing in a fraction of a second, which would have made it impossible for him to have carried out the alleged assault. Incredibly, the trial went ahead, and the jury took ninety minutes to clear him, which is eighty-nine minutes longer than necessary. The Crown Prosecution Service – or perhaps that should be the Clown Prosecution Service – came under fire for allowing such an absurd case to get anywhere near a courtroom, but although the politics is the obscene thing about this trial, the fascinating thing is the psychology of the allegation.
The accuser was a fairly well-known actress, although far from an A list celebrity. Her name can be found with a Google search or two, but will not be given here. She too has come under fire, particularly from MRAs who have called her the vile names that are rightly reserved for gratutiously false rape accusers like Alison Wheeler whose crime was discussed in a previous article.
This was no dedicated false rape allegation though, and it was so absurd, so blatantly false, that even without the CCTV one is entitled to ask could any false accuser hope to have got away with it? A claim of indecent assault yes, but not something as complex as this. That begs the question, was this woman simply making it up, or did she really believe this assault had happened?
The International False Rape Timeline contains a number of false allegations of this nature; here are a few:
In 1893 at Perth, Australia, an Aborigine named Wadgee was cleared of the rape of the mistress of the house, Mrs Cadwalder, who appeared to have suffered a bizarre hallucination, apparently while in sequela.
In February 1994, Anthony Tovey delivered a wardrobe to a woman’s apartment, and was invited to stop for a cup of coffee. The next day he was arrested, the customer having accused him of holding her captive for three hours and raping her. His accuser was so convincing that he was remanded in custody before DNA testing proved there had been no rape and no attack. The question has to be asked, why would an otherwise sane woman have invented such an attack? Juries are often stumped by this question, and it beggars belief thinking about how many innocent men have paid a heavy price on account of their failing to answer it, especially before DNA and CCTV.
Before postulating a likely reason, let us look at one more case, one that attracted considerable attention. In December 1985, a woman named Lorraine Miles visited her physiotherapist, Kenneth Cain. She was driven by her father who rather than sit waiting while his daughter was treated, went off for a walk. On January 10, Mr Cain was arrested. Lorraine Miles had accused him of sexually assaulting her, in particular she said he had inserted his fingers into her vagina and her rectum, then had both raped and buggered her before attempting to force her to fellate him, something she thwarted by keeping her mouth closed.
These are bizarre allegations indeed, and as Mr Cain was seeing other patients, how could he have done this? Three months later, the authorities declined to press charges, but feeling aggrieved, Miss Miles brought a civil case, and a High Court judge – sitting at Chelmsford – thought her testimony so persuasive that he found for the plaintiff, awarding her £25,108. However, Mr Cain appealed, as well he might, and the Court Of Appeal presided over by the Master of the Rolls reversed the judgment stating that Mr Justice Caulfield had allowed himself to be swayed by emotion. The plaintiff’s claims could not have been true, however sincerely she believed them.
It should be stressed that false rape allegations such as those made by Lorraine Miles are in no way similar to the claims of the demented student who made Professor Michael Patterson’s life Hell in the 1990s, or with the 2007 case of Katherine Clifton who framed a college professor. Nor are allegations of this nature comparable with historical claims which often result from women (and men) reconstructing history so that consensual but unsatisfying sexual encounters become rape, or an entirely fictional crime is created by confabulation induced by alcohol, prescription drugs, or even television programmes.
In 1992, a medical journal published a little known article: FALSE BUT SINCERE ACCUSATIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT MADE BY NARCOTIC PATIENTS.
The word narcotic is an obvious misprint; it should of course read narcoleptic. Most people are familiar with narcolepsy. In this article, the author relates the tale of one woman who believed she was raped first by a police officer, and then years later by her boss. What appears to have disturbed her as much as the rapes was the fact that both men made no allusion to the incidents, and continued their relationships with her as though nothing had happened. Vivid daytime dreams are a symptom of narcolepsy. It may be that in some cases people who do not suffer from this malady have a related experience, perhaps only once in a lifetime.
Because people who make such claims are not lying, they may appear totally sincere, which can be bad news for anyone they accuse, as Mark Pearson nearly discovered to his cost.
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