S. Africa: Woman sentenced to 3 years incarceration after false rape cry

Submitted by anthony on Wed, 2009-07-22 16:54

Story here. Excerpt:

'An Atteridgeville woman was sentenced to three years' imprisonment after she falsely accused a man of rape, police said on Monday.

Police spokesman Inspector Daniel Mavimbela said the accused man had already spent eight months in custody after bail was denied.

The 25-year-old woman had falsely accused a 42-year-old man of rape after her uncle found she had had sex with the man.

During sentencing, Magistrate Pierre Laurens told the woman she had put the man through shame through her false accusation.

"You must be ashamed of yourself, the only sentence I can think for you is a prison sentence, you are sentenced to three years," said Laurens.'

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Comments

I think part of the problem here is that women still tend to think it's OKAY to claim rape when they're in trouble, because they still expect no consequences from the accusation - they only need consider it for a moment to decide that it's more damaging to admit the truth than to lie about rape. As more women are incarcerated for lying about rape, false rape claims will become less common because liars will be inclined not to go to jail.

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Submitted by jayhammers on Thu, 2009-07-23 01:09

manonthestreet

The problem is that usually the accusation is only found out to be false if the woman says it is. So in effect this crime is only found out when the woman looses her nerve. It is only rarely that the accusation can be shown to be false using independent evidence.

So the effect might be for women to stick to their story come what may.

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Submitted by trotter on Thu, 2009-07-23 17:27