Judge throws out rape case
March 26th, 2009 at 2:00 pm by David FarrarWhile I comment on a number of crime stories, I generally try and avoid comment on rape cases where the only issue is consent (ie both parties agree there was sex) as it comes down to who you believe more, rather than forensic evidence or eye witnesses. And if you were not in the room you can’t be sure.
But I am glad to see the Judge stop the trial of Mark Tulloch, throwing the charge out after the third day. On the basis of the media reports (and yes I know that can be dangerous) it is difficult to see how there was ever a credible case that had any chance of conviction. I can just assume that as the accused was a Police recruit, the Police decided they had to charge him so they can’t be accused of doing a Rotorua.
False accusations do imense damage. Not just to the accused, but to all the genuine victims of rape who have to battle suspicion and sometimes hostility.
Related posts:
- Rape convictions
- Letter from a drug rape victim
- False rape complaints
- Russel Norman on the rape trials
March 26th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
I feel for this poor bastard, he steadfastly maintained his innocence right throughout the trial yet the stupid legal system would not allow him name suppression.
Of course for many people an accusation is enough, this poor prick will be branded a rapist for the rest of his life.
Meanwhile, in the last two months we have seen two wimin charged AND CONVICTED for having sex with an under-age male, both of these wimin were given name permanent name suppression.
Tell me how that is fair?
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
This guy should have tried thinking with his brains not his gonads.
Here he is screwing a woman he has known for all of a couple of hours and she is a loose cannon. If he had taken the trouble to get to know her before bedding her he could have saved himself an awful lot of grief.
He is particularly vulnerable to bogus rape claims as a police recruit – no?
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I think he became a police recruit after the events in question.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
FFS! so now she will walk away with no repercussions????
Ive said it before… if youre gonna bang a nutjob or have a one night stand.. get your camera phone and take a lil pic of you and her laying next to eachother smiling in the morning
Dime has one or two stored on his PC.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Nudie ones Dime? ’cause I’ve always thought that was a bit freaky – people who take photos of their “conquests”.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
nah mate.. just in bed.. only has to be a head shot…
course, some of the animals i bring home are too big to be photographed
think about it though.. its a nice sunny morning, youre next to each other smiling in a pic.. then she turns out to be nuts and accuses you of raping her that night.. simply print of the pic and youre all good
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Andrei – Your statement was a bit harsh. Have you never picked up/been picked up for casual sex? It happens. If they are a nutter you wont know about it til it is too late unless you have a fucking good radar. In this case they were cyber “dating” before hand and texting. Looks to me like he found out the hard way when he showed up basically.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
brian, andrei is an adherent of a cult that believes sex is for procreation, not recreation. although re-creation is a nice word for taking time off to enjoy the delights of a woman’s body.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
“I can just assume that as the accused was a Police recruit, the Police decided they had to charge him so they can’t be accused of doing a Rotorua.” The Crown Law guidelines actually acknowledge that a prosecution may proceed for ‘public interest’ reasons even though it may be a turkey. In the interests of human rights and to take load off courts IMO it is time we moved on from that approach.
The question the Police should pose to Crown Law is ‘Do you honestly think you have a reasonable chance of obtaining a conviction?’ If the answer is ‘no’ the Police should not continue with charges and if appropriate continue investigations. If there could be particular public concern of a cover-up, the Police / Crown Law should make the opinion public.
This tends to raise the matter of a Crown Prosecutions Service who would be the final arbiters of whether a prosecution proceeds. NZ is too small to have a separate CPS, but there is no reason why the Government cannot direct Crown Law to act in that role and make it clear that Crown Law is not the executive Government’s ‘hired gun’ lawyers when exercising that function. As far as I can see Crown Law basically treats the Police as a client and gives its advice and conducts prosecutions accordingly.
Same goes for the liquor shop case where the owner had to defend himself against knife wielders.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Andrei – Your statement was a bit harsh.
Harsh, I suppose so but reality is harsh sometimes.
Whether anybody likes it or not we have had a succession of sex scandals involving policemen over the past few years and anybody who aspires to a career in the police must take this into account or not at their own peril.
In my view policemen are supposed to show good judgment and in this case this fellow has demonstrated that he lacks it.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Thats a nice technique dime… but don’t you think those shots of Pauline Hanson were a bit over the top?
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Murray
Trust me when I say that a Pauline Hanson lookalike would be far from the ugliest thing Dime has had in his bed.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
And we’re in overshare.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
BAD TASTE
What’s the difference between rape and making love?
Two minutes!
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/02/nyregion/charges-dismissed-in-columbia-sexual-torture-case.html
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
What? So cops are not allowed to have sex lives or meet people. The internet is a modern “bar” where people meet and hook up. What are cops supposed to do to meet potential partners or are they sypposed to be celibate and single? If he had met her at a Christian Barn Dance the outcome could have been the same.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
sadly bruv is correct
if ya want overshare – sometimes i pay to have sex with women i wouldnt do for free.. any shrinks wanna have a look at that issue for me?
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Please dear god make it stop.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
No brian, in adrei’s sect the only place for sex is in the marital bed, lights out, man on top, woman on bottom and ONLY for reproduction. No enjoyment permitted. Sex is not fun.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Murray
I did warn you about Dime!.
You unleashed this can of worms now you must suffer he consequences.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Give me an account number, I will PAY to make it stop!
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Hey jackboot, fuck off.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
muzza please deposit funds to 03 0049 0001100 28
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Yep and again a left shows his religious intolerance and bigotry well done MNIJ I dont adhere to Andre’s believes anymore than I do that of a Muslim, but decent people and grownups allow others to practice their faith without persecution, And I feel dirty for having addressed you. Damn I never learn.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
This slut has a history of false acusations.If the police had investigated the case properly they should have not even laid the charges.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
peterwn notes:
I couldn’t agree more. “The public interest” is all too often interpreted to mean “destroying someone we don’t like” – with the “we” being the Police and/or their political masters, or occasionally someone else with privileged access to the system that can nudge a prosecution along.
One of the problems (aside from the guidelines as peterwn points out) is the lack of accountability. Like any arm of government the civil servants who inhabit the “justice” system are never held responsible for their errors of judgment. It’s always “the system” at fault if anything is ever found to be.
Police and Crown prosecutors who proceed with a case knowing full well that it has little or no chance of success and that it will damage or destroy the life of the accused need to face a process of stringent, independent review and – if they are found to be incompetent – dismissal and – if found to have acted with any malice – prosecution.
It’s all very well to say the maker of a false complaint should face the consequences – and in the vast majority of cases s/he should. But if I turn up at the counter of my local cop shop and make an unsubstantiated accusation against person A I’m likely to be told “sorry, it’s your word against his”. Whereas if I make it against person B, the entire might of the State rolls over him. That’s not how the law should operate, and it only operates that way because of the faulty subjective judgments of the Police and prosecutors involved.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Peterwn; There is no reason why NZ shouldn’t have an independent prosecution service. and many good reasons why it should. The Police are tasked with investigating breaches of the law and recommending prosecution where appropriate. Problem is the they also run the prosecution service whilst sitting in the next room and drinking at the same work bar. Not conducive in my view to independent assessment of a case. Police are not well regarded frankly for their ability to have clear demarcation of tasks nor are they well regarded for their efforts at independence of evidence, collection of evidence, presentation of evidence and discipline within their own ranks. There is a long list of court cases where the evidence is extremely suspect.
Vote:An even more important reason for having an independent prosecution service would be the ability of that service to provide for a far greater service to the community by being able to take a prosecution, where warranted, of a case outside of the police.
e.g. if someone say is caught by a company stealing and the company has the evidence, why should they have to rely on the police for that prosecution. Why shouldn’t they be able to present the information to a prosecutor who can then assess the case and proceed to court if it is considered justified by the evidence. It may be that he/she would require the police to arrest that suspect based on the evidence and formally charge that person and that is fine.
As Varinder Singh’s case highlighted the police often don’t come, either through lack of resources, or the crime isn’t considered important by somebody. The news is full of this situation constantly and many have the experience of going to the police with the evidence etc but are unable to have action taken. ( follow the case of the stolen car on Roar Prawn as an example.)
Imagine the enormous change in behavior if criminals thought that they would be caught by anyone in the community and prosecuted on evidence presented to a prosecutor, without the need for a policeman to gather and filter the evidence.
We would see our crime rate plummet by virtue of everyone in the community being a “policeman”.
Can’t be a bad thing at all.
March 26th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Name suppression is interesting. Currently the presumption is AGAINST name suppression. My view is that prior to conviction the presumption should be FOR name suppression. Especially in cases where it is easy to make a horrific allegation but hard to disprove (as distinct from being not guilty) it.
Technically he has been acquitted (on ground no reasonable jury could convict – ie: pretty strong) as opposed to the complainant being found to have made a false complaint. Some may have their own opinions on the veracity of the complainant however.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Viking 2 & GPT 1 (I see a pattern here…): Well said.
Vote:March 26th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Name suppression -? I can see Mark Tullochs name all over the front page – What about putting a name to the bitch FFS?
Vote:March 27th, 2009 at 8:54 am
Sorry jackboot, I don’t fund terrorists even if Obama changes their name to fuzzy cuddle man made disaster dealers.
Vote:March 27th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Bok (461) Vote: 4 1 Says:
March 26th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Yep and again a left shows his religious intolerance and bigotry well done MNIJ I dont adhere to Andre’s believes anymore than I do that of a Muslim, but decent people and grownups allow others to practice their faith without persecution.
Nowhere in my posts here, or elsewhere, have I attempted to stop andrei practicing his religion. That is a matter for him and his own intellectual integrity. But criticising a belief is not akin to persecution. Why do you think religion should be above criticism?
Vote:March 27th, 2009 at 11:25 am
The real problem is that Tulloch still stands accused in the public mind and will remain so for the rest of his life.
It is not as if he has been found innocent or even “not guilty”. In other cases this has been enough to attract the attention of interfering social agencies such as CYPS or whatever it is called these days and will probably have protestations unheard if a malicious non-molestation order was sworn against him.
Frankly that is not a situation I would wish on anyone. A better outcome might well have been that the case proceed and he is found not guilty with the complainant facing perjury charges, charges of wasting Police time and charges of laying a false complaint.
Vote:March 27th, 2009 at 11:45 am
big bruv, the following is one case of name suppression. Do you have any details on the other case?
Vote:March 27th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
No you haven’t stopped anyone, you just want all the Jews in Israel killed… hanfg on that might slow them down a bit don’t you think?
Vote:March 27th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
big bruv, the following is one case of name suppression. Do you have any details on the other case?
Vote:March 27th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Muzza, stop putting your fantasies on to me. I don’t want anyone killed, by anyone.
I am, however, all for the peaceful resettlement of Jews in their ancestral homelands of Europe. Funny how all this trouble and strife in the ME only began with the creation of modern Israel, eh? And how peculiar that the entire justification for Israel is based on an outdated text from a bunch of desert dwelling savages.
Vote:March 27th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
big bruv, the following is one case of name suppression. Do you have any details on the other case?
Vote: