Wednesday 28 March 2012

"...not consistent with the evidence gathered."

A woman who falsely accused two Victorian policemen of sexually assaulting her after they arrested her for being drunk outside a South Yarra nightclub has been convicted and fined $2000.
And faced court costs of nearly the same on top!
Mr Atkinson said her complaint was investigated by the police Ethical Standards Department which immediately undertook a number of actions.

These included taking a detailed statement from Mitchel, examining the "crime" scene, accessing CCTV footage, arranging the accused to attend an interview and having her forensically examined.
Aaaaaand that's when things started to go, well, let's say, awry.
The focus then shifted from an indecent assault to a false report, and when contacted Mitchel said she did not want to proceed with the complaint but continued to state it was true.

Mr Atkinson said that on collecting all the evidence it was clear from the CCTV footage and witness accounts they did not support her version and she admitted the following month she had made a false report.
Oh, how tempted must those officers have been to indulge in a little movie quotation?

They have the same weak-ass 'mitigation' down under too!
Defence barrister Trish Jones said today an apologetic Mitchel, supported in court by family, had reflected on her poor behaviour and now appreciated the effect of what she had done.

Ms Jones said Mitchel, who has no prior convictions and is a full-time carer for her young child, had written a letter of apology to the police officers.

Alcohol had been a problem in the past, she said, but had now moderated her intake, and at the time she had been involved in a dispute with the father of the child.
Full house!!

H/T: Angry Exile via Twitter

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Victorian policemen?

Did they peel off her clothing?








I'll get my coat.

Hexe Froschbein said...

Victorian crimes surely demand Victorian punishments... at least the Victorians thought it would work: http://somethingvictorianblog.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/chastity-belts-victorian-creation.html

Just modernise the contraption and add an electronic tag to it, and sentence them to wear it for the length of time their victim wouldn't gone to jail.

Kevin said...

Well, at least the Aussies call a spade a fucking shovel and actually deal out a decent punishment for making false rape allegations, unlike our own lilly-livered lot who make them a cup of tea with two sympathies.

A salt and battered said...

She could probably make a reasonable living in the UK.

Tang0 can confirm that the Met requires a constant supply of pathetic liars, without whom it would struggle to cover up most of the malfeasance and graft.

Louise said...

@Colin

Can you make that judgement on the basis of a single case?

I got rather excited there, thinking this woman had broken the laws of physics and time-travelled.

Anonymous said...

@ Louise

Ah, Thank God! I thought I was the only one, although spirits (the spooky rather than EtoH type) figured a little in my jumped to conclusion.

JuliaM said...

"I'll get my coat."

/applause

"Just modernise the contraption and add an electronic tag to it, and sentence them to wear it for the length of time their victim wouldn't gone to jail."

I like that idea!

"...and actually deal out a decent punishment..."

Some jail time on top would be even better.

Angry Exile said...

@Kevin, I half suspect the fine will ultimately be paid for by Centrelink, aka the benefits office to those of us born in Blighty.

@Julia Some jail time on top would be even better.

Oooh, with all the other franchises having gritty reboots they could do one for Prisoner as well.

Anonymous said...

From the Jenny Jones school of mitigation me thinks.

Not quite full-house, she should have claimed she was raped years ago and the trauma of this made her make the allegations, on top of her struggle with her sexual identity and the fact that she has bought a wheelchair but still waiting for a disease or accident to put her in it.

Well, she didn't need all that mitigation really.....she is a woman.

JuliaM said...

@Angry Exile - sadly, they did do a 'Prisoner' reboot a couple of years ago, with Jim Caviezel & Isn McKellan.

It was less 'gritty', than something that rhymes with it.. ;)

Angry Exile said...

To paraphrase Marvin the Paranoid Android, just when you think TV can't possible get worse, it does.