Gary Wood, 31, says that he was looking for the love of his life on the Internet when he met Natalie Jefferson, 27. He says that he was shocked when she proceeded to accuse him of rape. While Wood faced 10 years in prison, it will be Jefferson who will go to jail after police found that she had lied in making a false rape charge.
The couple met at a bar for a drink when Jefferson (who also goes by the name Natalie Dawn Dodsworth) claimed that she had to go see one of her children who had been taken to the hospital.
She then proceeded to accuse him of rape.
Jefferson admitted in court that she made the whole thing up but did not explain why.
The English appear less tolerant of such cases than we do. In the most famous false rape claim in recent memory, Crystal Gail Mangum in the Duke Lacrosse case was found to be lying but prosecutors refused to bring charges.
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a year my arse she got out last week
The cameras are not there to stop crimes. They exist to provide deterrent and (relatively) unimpeachable evidence in the event a crime does occur.
MASkeptic,
The case was able to be dropped quickly because of the CCTV footage retrieved from the surveillance cameras that are kept in areas like subway stations and major intersections. I would love to see such cameras in greater use here in the United States under similar caveats that they are only ever consulted if a crime is alleged to have been committed under their purview and they are not used for general surveillance of the population. You already have a minimal expectation of privacy while in a public area anyway and I don’t see how having a video record kept for security is an intrusion of government into the lives of the people.
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I would not and do not like the Government Intrusion however they have been keeping Cops honest mostly. But MASkeptic, most “rapes” complained of do not happen in the bars. I do however agree with the result in this case.
Hear! Hear!
At least we have preserved the most primitive forms of accountability …
http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/07/when-accountability-is-plague.html
The case was able to be dropped quickly because of the CCTV footage retrieved from the surveillance cameras that are kept in areas like subway stations and major intersections. I would love to see such cameras in greater use here in the United States under similar caveats that they are only ever consulted if a crime is alleged to have been committed under their purview and they are not used for general surveillance of the population. You already have a minimal expectation of privacy while in a public area anyway and I don’t see how having a video record kept for security is an intrusion of government into the lives of the people.
As always there is a potential for abuse but the problem is the Abusers not their tools.
This is of course different from Domestic Surveillance because Electronically Spying on Americans Without a Warrant is Illegal.
It’s too bad we don’t hold prosecutors to the same standard.