Letter: Call for anonymity

IN "A VICTIM of schoolboy fantasies" (14 November) Joan Smith complains of the naming of, and publicity given to, the young lady charged with, but subsequently found innocent of, indecent assault. She then cites the case of another young lady convicted of false allegations of rape, and infers that there are double standards of a sexually discriminatory nature at work.

The double standards here are her own. If she were to take off her feminist blinkers long enough to read a few local newspapers, she would find that men are being accused, publicly pilloried and subsequently found innocent regularly and often, while the anonymity of their feminine accusers is preserved.

While acknowledging that many such accusations are proved justified, the damage done to those men and their families, where innocence is declared, is often irreparable. There is surely an undeniable case for the maintenance of media anonymity for accuser and accused, of either sex, until a verdict has been reached.

GEOFF HINCHLIFFE

Thetford, Norfolk