Will ALL men be branded rapists?
Proposals announced earlier this week by the Department of Justice will allow alleged victims of rape to testify via pre-recorded video WITHOUT having to face cross-examination.
This further erosion of the fundamental principles of our justice system is deeply worrying.
A new, insidious legal apartheid is revealing itself in the courts, with one law for women and another for men.
The government is investing vast sums of taxpayers money to keep women out of prison whilst at the same time jailing record numbers of men – the UK now has the largest prison population in Western Europe.
This apartheid extends to our secretive family courts where fathers are routinely denied access to their children, subject to mandatory risk assessments, then sent on domestic violence courses – even before the court makes its legal findings. By contrast, mothers with a history of violence or drug abuse are awarded residency without dispute.
Worst still, mum can bring home any Tom, Dick or Sally she likes, and the courts won’t bat an eyelid.
In fact this new proposal has already been suggested in the family courts to prevent mothers being cross-examined by fathers over contested allegations.
The theory behind these dangerous proposals is that vulnerable women will be protected from intimidation or difficult questioning.
What’s of interest here is that there is no response by the government to the epidemic of false allegations flooding the system so women can secure free legal aid, or any suggestion how unrepresented fathers would defend themselves without being able to cross examine the person making the allegations.
In rape cases, the theory behind the proposals is that by sparing alleged victims the ordeal of the courtroom, encouraging more victims to come forward. Yet those who are falsely accused of rape are not spared the ordeal of the courtroom and cannot hide behind the cover of anonymity.
Rape – like any serious allegation – must be tried and tested with the full rigour of the law otherwise we are left with the sort of Salem like, finger-pointing trials previously reserved for witches.
If a defendant cannot cross-examine an alleged victim in person, how can they defend themselves?
The key tenet of our justice system is innocent until proven guilty, yet in the family courts this principle has already been reversed.
By allowing pre-recorded video testimony in rape cases, you are introducing the presumption of guilt and placing the onus on the defence to prove innocence.
None of this is by accident.
Our government and legal system has been hijacked by a swivel-eyed feminist clique that want to demonise and denigrate fathers and soften the law for women.
Those in denial about this, need only to look at the cold, hard facts.
The erosion of the fundamental principles of our legal system makes a mockery of our idea of justice.
The lives of too many men and fathers are being destroyed at the hands of a brutal court system whilst boys are being indoctrinated at schools into believing that only men are violent – that only men are monsters.
If we believe in equality for all, then we must defend the principle of equal justice, otherwise the old feminist line will prevail: that all men are rapists until proven otherwise.
Matt O’Connor, Founder, Fathers4Justice
