Posted on : November 6, 2011 - by seanchai10
Louis Walsh, the Irish music manager probably best known for his work as a judge on the UK TV show The X Factor, spoke out earlier this year about the effects of being falsely accused of sexual assault. His accuser pleaded guilty this week to two counts of making false reports.
Last June Walsh received a phone call from a reporter at the UK tabloid the Sun stating that the paper planned to run a story that he had been accused of sexually assaulting a young man in a nightclub toilet. The following day, the paper ran with the allegation as its front page story. It was quickly picked up by other media and ran on the front pages of the UK’s tabloid press for several days.
Walsh had apparently met his accuser at a Dublin nightclub two months previously, and had spoken to him briefly. This man later made a complaint to An Garda Siochana, the Irish police force. According to members of the group Westlife, who were with Walsh on the night in question, Walsh was not drinking and he did not use the toilet during his time in the nightclub.
Walsh vehemently denied any wrongdoing from the minute the scandal broke. He travelled to Dublin, where the complaint was made, and was voluntarily interviewed by An Garda Siochana within days of the allegation. Walsh was cleared of all wrongdoing, and the man who made the allegation admitted to police that he had fabricated his claims.
When Walsh spoke out recently about the effects that the allegations had on his life and health he echoed the same awful consequences which are routinely experienced by men who have had to contend with the trauma of being falsely accused.
Last June Walsh received a phone call from a reporter at the UK tabloid the Sun stating that the paper planned to run a story that he had been accused of sexually assaulting a young man in a nightclub toilet. The following day, the paper ran with the allegation as its front page story. It was quickly picked up by other media and ran on the front pages of the UK’s tabloid press for several days.
Walsh had apparently met his accuser at a Dublin nightclub two months previously, and had spoken to him briefly. This man later made a complaint to An Garda Siochana, the Irish police force. According to members of the group Westlife, who were with Walsh on the night in question, Walsh was not drinking and he did not use the toilet during his time in the nightclub.
Walsh vehemently denied any wrongdoing from the minute the scandal broke. He travelled to Dublin, where the complaint was made, and was voluntarily interviewed by An Garda Siochana within days of the allegation. Walsh was cleared of all wrongdoing, and the man who made the allegation admitted to police that he had fabricated his claims.
When Walsh spoke out recently about the effects that the allegations had on his life and health he echoed the same awful consequences which are routinely experienced by men who have had to contend with the trauma of being falsely accused.
Louis Walsh spoke to the Daily Mail about his ordeal.
In July Walsh told the Daily Mail and the Mirror that the allegations left him feeling suicidal, and he had trouble eating and could not sleep without sleeping tablets. He also suffered from panic attacks as a result of the allegations.
“I’ve changed forever,” he said. “This has made me physically ill. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. I’ve lost so much weight that my suits don’t even fit me any more.
“I can’t even get a proper night’s sleep, so I’m exhausted. When I drift off I suddenly wake up in a blind panic. The panic attacks are awful. I have to calm myself down and say, ‘It’s over, I’m going to be OK’.”
To be falsely accused of sexual assault is an extremely traumatic experience. Men who are falsely accused routinely experience suicidal feelings, anxiety, and depression as a result of their ordeal. What Louis Walsh describes is a normal reaction to a nightmare situation.
And yet, notwithstanding the very distressing nature of this incident, Walsh was at least spared the extended ordeal suffered by many others who are falsely accused of a sex crime. His ordeal was thankfully a short one due largely to the fact that CCTV footage from the club demonstrated that the incident his accuser described to the police had not occurred.
Many men who are falsely accused have to cope with an investigation which drags on for months, or even years. Many have to contend with arrest, charges, devastating damage to their reputations, and even the ignomy of a public prosecution and, in the most extreme circumstances, a criminal conviction and prison sentence for a crime that they did not commit.
Warren Blackwell, for example, was falsely accused of sexual assault, and his name was not cleared until after he had served a three and a half year prison sentence, even though police knew his accuser had a history of similar false allegations. He was refused leave to appeal his conviction, while the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service appealed the leniency of his sentence, which was duly extended. Vladek Filler was acquitted by a Maine, US court of sexually assaulting his wife last May, four years after she falsely accused him of raping her. He was prosecuted twice on this charge – he was convicted in 2009 but a retrial was ordered on appeal – even though his wife, from whom he had separated shortly before the allegation, had already fabricated claims that he had sexually abused their children, claims which were found to be false on investigation.
In the Blackwell and Filler cases, the fact that the complainants had made previous false allegations should have alerted investigating officers to the very real possibility that these claims were also false. The only way to prevent other cases like those of Warren Blackwell and Vladek Filler is to acknowledge the fact that false allegations do occur, and to abandon the ‘no smoke without fire’ approach to complaints which appear spurious. While the notion of challenging the credibility of a victim may sound distasteful, there are clearly cases where the credibility of a complainant should be questioned, because there is a likelihood that by pursuing his or her alleged assailant the law is, in fact, punishing the real victim.
