Open to debate if you have all the facts 100%.
However, there is another element that needs to be considered and that is the CPS. They as I understand it have ‘conviction targets’. So if you drag enough ‘alleged’ ‘sexual offenders’ into court you up the conviction rate and the targets you have been set look achievable. Wether that is solid ground to base judicial democracy on is another topic for conversation.
Trial by traditional media and laterally social media has made getting to the truth so much harder. Just ask the victims of ‘operation Yew Tree’. Every time I see someone famous ‘outed’ by the media or arrested for alleged sexual offences I cannot help but think really? At what time in the future are these men and generally it is men going to be released without charge or acquitted in a court of law. Please do not think I’m defending anyone or everyone of an accusation of a sexual misdemeanour but fuck me I hope that none of us here get a knock on the door for something you’ve long since forgotten about or genuinely cannot remember. Even if you are 100% innocent even dry mud sticks to a wall. Fucking minefield where there are no winners.
I think you're right about political input into the criminal law and what you call judicial democracy. In England & Wales, the CPS were indeed set an increased conviction rate target [of 60%].
But that target was withdrawn 4 years ago approx.
Furthermore, setting a target for an increased conviction
rate in fact led to
fewer prosecutions - not more. Add a decade long freeze on legal aid rates and swingeing cuts made to the judicial system and you have
fewer charges, prosecutions and convictions for rape - and wider still. As Swindon South MP, Robert Buckland, KC, well knows.
Rape is notoriously difficult to prove where consent is alleged to have been given and where there are no witnesses. So I'm not so sure where public expenditure should be prioritised - if compromise is required. I would guess that the needs of battered and assaulted partners (and vulnerable young women/girls) are far, far greater than those of unfairly impugned celebrities.
But patchy or not, we do have a system and Williams Kokolo has been found not guilty. If signed, I'll only be interested in his footballing ability and how he fits in with his teammates and manager. Like every STFC player, he would become a representative of the club and, whilst here, would have a range of expectations on how he carries himself outside of his "day job" - which the likes of the otherwise excellent Nile Ranger failed to meet, imo.
