Woman should be jailed rather than fined for false allegation of rape

For the second time in the past few months we have seen a guilty party in a rape/sexual assault case having a jail sentence suspended on condition that they pay a sum of money in compensation.

This has prompted calls for the DPP to appeal against the leniency of the sentence and the introduction of statutory guidelines on sentencing in such cases.

The people making such calls may have a valid case but they would have more credibility if they weren’t so selective and so sexist. Some months ago in a case involving alleged rape, a fine of €1,000 was imposed on the self-confessed guilty party with no mention of a prison sentence, suspended or otherwise. There was no outcry from the media or anyone else about this ridiculously lenient penalty which trivialises rape even more than the other two cases. The reason being the guilty party was not the man who was accused, but the woman, who admitted making a false allegation. According to reports she claimed that her friends encouraged her to do so.