Archive for May, 2010
Happy birthday to ….
Today’s birthdays:
- Christopher Lee. You know, it’s Saruman from Lord Of The Rings
He’s doing well considering he’s 88 today. - Isabella in Ealing. Actually her birthday was yesterday and I missed it
I’m sorry love.
Steve
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Quote of the day
“Thinking begins only when we have come to know that reason, glorified for centuries, is the stiff-necked adversary of thought.” – Martin Heidegger
Steve
Rape …. To be more precise the accusation of rape.
There’s been some talk about rape in the air lately. More specifically about changing the law around rape in regards to anonymity of the defendant (eg the man). In a nutshell our new coalition government (eg the Dave & Nick show) are proposing to sort out the anonymity issue regarding rape, in other words the defendant’s anonymity is to be preserved because “false accusations do happen”. The idea being that defendants will be anonymous unless convicted, is to me at least, something blindingly obvious that should happen.
You know what people are like. If you’re a man and you’re acquitted people will still point the finger, wave it around and tut “there’s no smoke without fire” and the like. So personally I welcome the idea of such a law, because false accusations of rape can, and do, ruin lives. For example:
A woman drove a man to suicide by crying rape and forced a second innocent man to consider taking his life after falsely accusing him of a similar sex attack. Despite being exposed in court as a serial liar, legal restrictions mean the 21-year-old woman can never be identified. A jury took only 45 minutes to clear medical student Olumide Fadayomi, 27, of rape. But several jurors at Sheffield Crown Court broke down in tears when the judge revealed the ‘victim’ had a history of crying rape.
Judge Patrick Robertshaw launched a stinging attack on the Crown Prosecution Service for making Mr Fadayomi stand trial. He said: ‘The evidence did not, and was never going to, prove rape. The prime overriding consideration in the CPS’s decision had been merely that the complainant wished the case to go ahead. ‘It was little short of a craven abdication of responsibility for making an independent and fair-minded assessment of the case. ‘It is quite astonishing these decisions are made by those who simply do not have experience of what happens in Crown Court because they never come into Crown Court. ‘They sit behind desks and make decisions that result in this sort of trial taking place.’ The judge revealed how 18 months earlier the same woman had made an allegation of rape. He said the case never reached court because it was ‘lacking in credibility’, but the accused man committed suicide ‘when facing that allegation’. After failing to have this first ‘rapist’ brought to court, the woman set about framing Mr Fadayomi, a stranger she met in a nightclub.
The woman claimed Mr Fadayomi attacked her in a house he shared in Walkley, Sheffield. But a friend, who was with her that evening, told the court the woman danced and kissed Mr Fadayomi, boasting: ‘I’m going to have his body tonight.’ The woman later told her friend she planned to accuse the student of rape, saying: ‘He is not going to get away with it, I’ve got evidence this time.’
Mr Fadayomi told the jury the woman had agreed to sex. He said: ‘She never told me to stop and neither did she resist.’ The student, from Nigeria, was doing a biomedical sciences course at the University of East London, but the incident happened in October when he went to Sheffield to do a ten-week music production course during a study break. After the case Mr Fadayomi recalled how the woman propositioned him by telling him she liked his ‘perfume’ and that ’she wouldn’t mind having me that night’. They later returned to his house, where they had sex. Mr Fadayomi then gave her £8 for a taxi and she left. He said he went out to buy food at 6am and police were waiting for him on his return.
Mr Fadayomi said of his ordeal: ‘My life has been hell for the last seven months. I thought about taking my own life. ‘I’ve not been able to sleep properly since all this happened. Some of my friends shunned me and my parents in Nigeria were heartbroken and scared of what might happen to me.’
Naheed Hussain, Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS South Yorkshire, last night defended the decision to bring the case but said he would conduct a review following the judge’s comments ‘to see if any lessons can be learned’. He said: ‘The decision to prosecute was taken by a senior lawyer. We were satisfied there was sufficient evidence not only from the complainant but from another witness whose evidence supported that of the complainant.’
The law allows defendants accused of rape to be named, but the government intends to introduce anonymity for alleged rapists until conviction.
It really makes me sick to read this ….
On a personal level one of my friends was accused of rape, back when he was an undergraduate at Southampton University. He was innocent, even the jury knew he was innocent and he was acquitted (quite rightly so). However, the trauma of the event plagued him for a number of years and he has had a lot of problems over the whole event. In the end he had to move away from home and essentially start his life anew, with very little money. I stuck by him and to this day he is still one of my best friends, and has fought his “demons” and is about to get married.
In my opinion, any type of sex crime should provide anonymity to the defendant, because even to be accused of paedophilia or rape etc. can ruin your life if innocent ….
There’s more articles here:
Naming rape suspects ruins lives. (from the excellent Minette Marrin).
Anonymity for rapists without balaclavas. (Al Jahom’s Final Word).
Anonymity for those accused of rape: One good reason right here. (Al Jahom’s Final Word again).
Steve
An ode to spellcheckers
Eye have a spelling chequer,
It came with my Pea Sea.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss Steaks I can knot sea.
Eye strike the quays and type a whirred
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am write oar wrong
It tells me straight a weigh.
Eye ran this poem threw it,
Your shore real glad two no.
Its vary polished in its weigh.
My chequer tolled me sew.
A chequer is a bless thing,
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right all stiles of righting,
And aides me when eye rime.
Each frays come posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The chequer pours o’er every word
Two cheque sum spelling rule.
Spotted this on a forum this morning. Apparently written by Jerrold H Zar in 1992. it’s quite amusing I created this entire post using Google Chrome (which has a spellchecker function) and it highlighted no errors ….
Steve
Quote of the day
“very few people like taking complete ownership of their lives, which is why social democracy is so popular” – Obnoxio The Clown
Steve
My house now up for sale on the internet
Well there was a couple of teething problems, but finally it’s up on the internet. Let’s hope it’ll soon be time to start packing !
Bungalow for sale. (link will open in new window)
Anyone who is genuinely interested and who has more questions can contact me. My contact details on the “about me” page of this blog.
Steve
So, the new government eh ? What do we reckon ?
As this is not a political blog (although like most of the populace I have a passing interest in the governance of our country) I’ve not really commented on Gordon Brown’s demise and the resulting coalition government. However, I do have to say I’m feeling moderately optimistic now, and the right rumblings are coming from parliament. I particularly like the following:
- “Substantial rise in income tax allowances for lowest paid from April 2011″. This will be beneficial for the lowest paid in our society, and let’s face it there’s plenty of people on minimum wage in our country.
- “Fixed-term Parliaments – next election in May 2015″. Such a simple idea, why didn’t we use it before ? It now means an election will HAVE to be called, no more waiting for the current prime minister to call an election when he/she feels his party at its most popular (or when they no longer have a choice, a la Gordon Brown).
- “Right of the public to “recall” corrupt MPs”. Blimey, didn’t expect that one.
- “New National Security Council to manage different security threats”. If this means no departmental (eg MI5, Special Branch, MI6 and so on) “wars” and a spirit of sharing, cooperation and compromise then it has to be a good thing.
- “No further powers ceded to EU without referendum”. Well yes I agree, such a major shift should only made in response to the vox populi (voice of the people). Labour should have called a referendum over our entry into the Lisbon Treaty in my opinion.
- “UK not to join euro in lifetime of Parliament”. David Cameron promised this on a number of occasions in the last few months. While I can see pros in joining the Euro, I can see more cons. Your experience may vary ….
- “Great Repeal Bill including abolition of ID cards”. A reversing of the effects of state erosion on personal privacy. Saves us 5 billion quid in the process.
It’ll be interesting to see if David Cameron and Nick Clegg are up to the task, let’s hope so and let’s hope they don’t disappoint, I sense an air of hope. Oh and if you haven’t seen the cover of today’s Sun newspaper check the picture below out
Steve
Quote of the day
“Economists say Britain faces the deepest spending cuts for a generation as it tries to plug the £ 167 billion black hole left in the public finances by Labour” – Spotted today here.
Ouch. That’s a lot of “cash”.
Steve
I’ll name that book …. (Yes I know it’s a long shot)
Some years back I read a book, which at the time I enjoyed. I’ve been reading a few “action” books since then (you know the sort, Jack Higgins etc.) and I remembered this book I’d read earlier. Trouble is I no longer have the book, nor can I remember the name of it ….
It was about a journalist who was appointed to find a former Nazi who was (supposedly) blackmailing a senator’s father. His ex wife was married to the aforementioned senator who was a runner in a presidential campaign. The journalist finds the Nazi eventually in Mexico.
Has anyone any idea whatsoever what book this is ?
Steve
Quote of the day
“We have a Government that has contempt for the views of the people it governs.
There is nothing that the British people can talk about, that this Labour Government doesn’t deride.
Talk about Europe and they call you extreme. Talk about tax and they call you greedy. Talk about crime and they call you reactionary. Talk about asylum and they call you racist; talk about your nation and they call you Little Englanders … This government thinks Britain would be alright if we had a different people. I think Britain would be alright, if only we had a different Government.
A Conservative Government that speaks with the voice of the British people.
A Conservative Government never embarrassed or ashamed of the British people.
A Conservative Government that trusts the people [...] This country must always offer sanctuary to those fleeing from injustice. Conservative Governments always have, and always will. But it’s precisely those genuine refugees who are finding themselves elbowed aside.” – William Hague (the new Foreign Secretary)
When reading this (I spotted it on Wikipedia) I couldn’t help but think of the Gordon Brown Bigotgate scandal Say what you will about Gillian Duffy she’s entitled to her opinion, and to her “voice”.
Steve
