Another miscarriage of justice hits the Gardai and the courts.
In 1999 the then 10 year old Una Hardester accused Michael Hannon of sexually assaulting her. heading should read thus
Hannon thankfully only received a 4 year suspended sentence however the trauma of the false accusation had a terrible effect on his health and he had to live with the stigma until earlier this year when Hardester now 22 yrs old found God and could no longer live with the false accusation
Last edited by perprojustice; 27th April 2009 at 02:36 PM.
She should go to Prison. It's a most disgraceful allegation and prejudices those who legitimately have suffered abuse.
False allegations of rape/child abuse should carry the same sentence as a conviction for the crimes themselves.
In fairness, the only effect of that rule would be that she wouldn't have admitted she made a false accusation.Originally Posted by corelli
However, I agree with the general principle. People who make false accusations of rape mean that real rape victims are less likely to be trusted.
Why should she go to jail? She was 10 years old at the time, has there been a change in the law I am unaware of?
Dont get me wrong, I find these sort of cases extremely disturbing and have nothing but sympathy for anyone who is falsly accused, its a terrible thing indeed, but what can we do at this stage? Its nice to know she faced up the truth, in cases like this, I believe that if someone admits to making a false claim like this, the onus should be on them to repair the damage to a person reputation, but you cannot convict someone based on a lie told when they were but a child? I would be more interested in pursuing those who may have knowingly pressued the child into making these claims than the child herself, if in fact this is what happened. This really is a case with no straight solutions, unless it could be proved that the system itself was lacking in the prosecution of the case.
I know if it was me, I would hate the girl in question for doing this to me, but again, she was 10 years old at the time, I could hate her as an adult, not as a child.
If I could mass-sterilise the planet, I would. Seriously.
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Imho, even a 10 year old knows that this is an apalling thing to do to an innocent person. We are living at a time in our history when children are increasingly involved in criminal-activity. I blame liberals for helping create this situation by opposing sanctions on those engaged in such behaviour. For them, these issues are to be resolved by 'rehabilitation'. The UK used to have a law known as "The Presumption", under which where the guilty party is 10 years or younger, the State automatically assumes they did not comprehend that they were doing wrong. They correctly removed that situation, perhaps with the murderers of Jamie Bolger in mind. This man should be allowed to pursue those ultimately responsible for this woman's expression of her truly evil lie in the 1990's. I firmly believe that victims of crime at the hands of children should have recourse to the parents of such children in terms of litigation to pursue compensation.
Another miscarriage of justice hits the Gardai and the courts.
In 1999 the then 10 year old Una Hardester accused Michael Hannon of sexually assaulting her.
Hannon thankfully "only" received a 4 year suspended sentence however the trauma of the false accusation had a terrible effect on his health and he had to live with the stigma until earlier this year when Hardester now 22 yrs old found God and could no longer live with the false accusation and returned from the USA in 2006 to admit her wrongdoing.
The conviction was set aside last February but amazingly the state, denying any wrongdoing on their part, opposed Hannons application for a declaration of a miscarriage of justice and put the man through the courts yet again.
Counsel for Hannon did not seek a declaration that the Gardai were involved in wrongdoing relying on the fact that a false conviction on false evidence was sufficient.
Today the three court Court of Criminal Appeal declared a miscarriage of justice.
How can something like this happen in our society where a 10 year old girl is capable of fooling expert Gardai to the stage that they sent the file to the DPP and the DPP ordered a prosecution.
Were the Gardai too anxious to seek a conviction forgetting that they are as duty bound to seek out the innocence of a person accused as they are to see that that there is sufficient evidence to see that the accused are brought to justice.
How many more are out there carrying false convictions?
Unfortunately the post edit timed out so placing it here rather that an edit to the original post.
Mmmmm, indeed we don't hold children criminally culpable ... but it looks like there was an adult coaching her:
So if now as a child, she refuses to fess up the adult ...The court heard there was a history of animosity between his family and his alleged victim's family relating to disputes between rights of way and land.
Ms Hardester's allegation of sexual assault was made in detailed terms, and was conspicuous for its graphic and coherent uses of medical and anatomical terms, the court said.
cYp
"Yawn , am I alive yet ?"
am, any links ?
and I think some of the reactions to this weird in the context of how kids who have
(possibly) been abused (mentally/physically/sexually) react to the world = thats why
we have very strict guidelines on child contact in counselling/rape centres in this
country.
but hey! go demonise a ten year old when you don't have the full facts.
This evil little witch lied in court and destroyed this man's life and reputation.but hey! go demonise a ten year old when you don't have the full facts.
Not only did she lie but sustained this falsehood for ten years prolonging the suffering of an innocent man.
She should be thrown in jail.
I have no sympathy for her whatsoever.
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