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Is it time for anonymity for the accused?


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But it is completely different in this case where the defendant denied any offence had taken place

... and the other party was allegedly 6 years old at the time of the crime. It was extremely complex.

 

All the issues around Le Vell are irrelevant, essentially. He was found not-guilty. It's not answering the purpose of the original question.

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I'm split. There are both advantages and disadvantages of naming the alleged.

 

I'm sitting on the fence on this one. ;)

 

The only possible benefit of naming the accused is to encourage others to come forward. But I made the point earlier that they can come forward when he / she is named following a guilty verdict.

 

I don't think that victims should remain silent anyway, waiting for someone else to raise the issue. Why would someone who has suffered a horrendous crime choose not come forward? They will be anonymous all the way through and even after the verdict. I appreciate that there will be trauma in the witness box but surely they would want justice, revenge. The only way to get this is by making a complaint in the first place.

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The only possible benefit of naming the accused is to encourage others to come forward. But I made the point earlier that they can come forward when he / she is named following a guilty verdict.

It's difficult to get a guilty verdict. The argument would follow that more people coming forward as victims may provide a larger weight of evidence.

 

Why would someone who has suffered a horrendous crime choose not come forward?

Because being cross-examined about the most awful aspects of what happened to you, with lawyers intruding, bringing up the past, casting doubt on what happened - it isn't the most pleasant experience a person can put themselves through.

 

Deeper though, it's their prerogative. I can't say how I'd feel in their place.

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The only possible benefit of naming the accused is to encourage others to come forward. But I made the point earlier that they can come forward when he / she is named following a guilty verdict.

I don't think that victims should remain silent anyway, waiting for someone else to raise the issue. Why would someone who has suffered a horrendous crime choose not come forward? They will be anonymous all the way through and even after the verdict. I appreciate that there will be trauma in the witness box but surely they would want justice, revenge. The only way to get this is by making a complaint in the first place.

 

There's a wealth of information available as to the reasons victims of sexual assaults don't always come forward - guilt, shame, fear of the person who assaulted them, fear they won't be believed and so on. Many survivors have precarious mental health and fear the consequences of having to re-live their experience.

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It's difficult to get a guilty verdict. The argument would follow that more people coming forward as victims may provide a larger weight of evidence.

 

 

Because being cross-examined about the most awful aspects of what happened to you, with lawyers intruding, bringing up the past, casting doubt on what happened - it isn't the most pleasant experience a person can put themselves through.

 

Deeper though, it's their prerogative. I can't say how I'd feel in their place.

 

I agree, but if they don't come forward there is nothing can be done, they need to be braver. Easy for me to say though.

 

Child abuse is a different issue though. Children, or those who are now adults, must suffer great torment, trauma even, at the thought of reliving the crime. So I would understand them being terrified of the ordeal.

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It's difficult to get a guilty verdict. The argument would follow that more people coming forward as victims may provide a larger weight of evidence.

 

Indeed. Post conviction anonymity might result in other victims feeling that they've lost their chance, or that their story won't be heard.

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Yep. Like I said, no evidence either way but throwing it to the public to decide so they can't be accused of covering up.

 

My concern in all these celebrity cases is the danger of a lime light seeker or two coming along and with no evidence the weight of numbers starts to make a case in itself.

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