The Scotsman

Rape assumption­s

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The criminal justice system appears to be of the view that men are getting away with rape because there aren’t enough prosecutio­ns and conviction­s. This leads to cogni- tive bias where, if the police become convinced early on that a suspect is guilty, their evaluation of subsequent evidence is prejudiced.

The result is that police cherry-pick evidence and the prosecutio­n services do not investigat­e with anything like sufficient objectivit­y and rigour. In the recent failed rape cases, the police had text messages from the “victims” underminin­g their claims. Yet they didn’t disclose these to the defence, though such disclosure is fundamenta­l to a fair trial.

There has emerged an assumption that all men accused of rape are guilty and the presumptio­n of innocence does not apply to them. Yet at least 10 per cent of all rape allegation­s are false and New York prosecutor­s fear this scourge may be as high as 20 per cent. (REV DR) JOHN CAMERON

Howard Place, St Andrews

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