Injustice of false rape accusations

Sir — In an era of so much ‘‘echo chamber’’ journalism it was refreshing to read Larissa Nolan’s courageous article headlined “the only thing equal to rape is being wrongly labelled a rapist”.

She quite rightly said that we “must dismantle the much touted myth that false allegations are incredibly rare”. This myth, as Larissa Nolan has pointed out, “has no solid research to back it up”. It is based on spurious agenda-driven pseudo-research.

The attitude of the judiciary appears to be that, while rape is a heinous crime, deserving of a severe prison sentence, a false allegation of rape is a trivial matter akin to stealing a bar of chocolate from a supermarket. Michael Stephens, Tallaght, Dublin 24