UK: Women will be the losers if the Government allows rape anonymity

Article here. Excerpt:

'Anonymity for men accused of rape was introduced in 1976 but reversed in 1988 because it hampered police investigations. The proposal to reintroduce it relies on the sexist myth that women are quick to lie about rape.

Nothing is further from the truth. It is extremely hard for women to report rape, and 90 per cent never do. Those who report often say it was to protect others. But many are disbelieved or dismissed by police and prosecutors and even urged to withdraw – no wonder the conviction rate for reported rape remains 6.5 per cent.

Worse: any woman whose rapist was not pursued or convicted can be accused of making a false allegation and prosecuted, especially if she has reported rape in the past. (Since rape is common, many women are vulnerable to such charges.) Such prosecutions of women, seized on by the media, inflate the already unreliable figures on false allegations. How many of them are miscarriages of justice which no government has so far acknowledged, let alone addressed?
...

Proposing to grant anonymity to men accused of rape is fuelling a backlash against rape victims who dare to report. It reaffirms the still-too-common belief that women should stop "making a fuss". It discourages women from coming forward, and increases the likelihood that those who do will be disbelieved and prosecuted while their attackers remain free to rape again.

But women will not be pushed back to the 1970s. The huge public outcry against this proposal is the proof. '