Mobile Phone Evidence In Rape Cases

[vetuste_ennemi]

If part of his legal defence by a man accused of rape is that he and his accuser had a history of consensual sex, then why does it need her phone rather than his to prove it?

[Calicogirl]

Simple answer- he doesn't, the only thing a phone could be used for in those circumstances is to examine her messages to other people. For example if I were dating you, we split up and then I messaged my best friend and said 'I'm going to sleep with VE and then report him him for rape' that'd pretty much nail any allegation down, or maybe they could cast doubt on her moral integrity in other ways but essentially I can't see under most circumstances it would be helpful or appropriate.

[Peter Pedant]

it doesnt
if it is on his phone - then download it quick ! and print !!

this is stuff to third parties
Liam Allen made the point that - you dont know what is on the phone
clearly showing that the data that exculpated him - he didnt know about it
( but he did constantly ask about it ....)

[EDDIE51]

Do you have a reference for this? I would think both the man and the woman's phones would have been needed!

[Peter Pedant]

I have been on the wrong end of allegations
and was then invited to refute them

which I did. and pointed out that there were recorded reasons why alleger (the poor abused victim blah blah blah) might have done this ....

Nothing happened. at all. to the alleger.
like you know 'missie mustnt allege things missie knows are untrue'.....none of that. she wept on and insisted if it wasnt that monday then it was the monday before or the month before or another week day or some other time.
I was told I was lucky: I didnt see it like that.

[Peter Pedant]

reffo
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42873618

is the nearest I can get

scroll down to
included some between the alleged victim and friends saying what a kind person Mr Allan was, how much she loved him and that she had had a great experience with him.

I did wonder how he knew that there was stuff on the phone not sent to him ....
perhaps third parties told him...

[vetuste_ennemi]

The evidence of an intimate relationship would be established by shared texts/images etc., wouldn't it, Eddie?

In any single case you only need one phone to establish that A is sending to B or vice versa?

The sub poena sequestering of an accuser's phone looks to me very much like the "she's a trollop" defence. That defence is not evidence. It does, however, serve, to implant doubts in a jury's mind.

[Calicogirl]

Sorry I'm an idiot, can someone report that please? Thanks x

[vetuste_ennemi]

Ab Editor, it's official. Calico Girl is an idiot.

[vetuste_ennemi]

I leave the appropriate moderating bodies to determine the suitable punishment - time on the naughty step or whatever.

[Calicogirl]

I'm frequently on the naughty step VE- and I like it ;-) x

[JF85]

If his 'phone has been lost or stolen?

Even then, however, it should be down to the prosecution to make a case for disclosure in front of a judge, rather than the police to seize mobiles in every case.

Even if I were accused of rape, one of the nastiest offences going, I would not demand my accuser offer up that amount of personal and confidential information - not to mention her 'phone / address book, photo album, diary and calendar - unless I had a very good reason and it was unavoidable.

I appreciate the seriousness of rape and the difficulty of securing convictions, but this is an additional tool for guilty people to escape justice. Not only that but, in a nation where low-level crime is routinely ignored and our police are overstretched, where are the resources for checking through and analysing the 'phone's content in sufficient detail? Without interviewing both parties extensively, how do the police know that "u ok hun?" does not mean "Are you recovering from the trauma of being raped by me last night?"