A male model – and financial advisor – has called for those accused of sexual offences to remain anonymous until they’re convicted, after being cleared of spiking a woman’s drink.
Matthew Riches, 29, was accused of spiking a woman’s drink with MDMA at The Roof Gardens in Kensington. She later became ill and went to the hospital where the substance was found in her urine and blood, and she tracked down Mr Riches online within two weeks of that evening.
He spent a year on bail before being cleared at Isleworth Crown Court within just 30 minutes of the hearing. CCTV viewed by the jury showed that he and hs accuser had kissed during the night. While Mr Riches admitted he had made an ‘idotic mistake’ – you see, he has a girlfriend he lives with in Epsom, Surrey – the jury were not convinced that he had drugged the accuser in a bid to sleep with her.
Mr Riches told the Evening Standard: ‘I’m innocent but my name has been dragged through the mud. It’s horrible to see your name next to that allegation. It completely destroyed my reputation. I do modelling work and the agency didn’t want to do any work with me. I’m also a financial adviser and a lot of my clients didn’t want to deal with me.’
He added that he’s been searched out and trolled, too: ‘I had emails saying “you are a rapist”. I’m not really sure how I will clear my name. When you Google my name it says I drugged someone to have sex.’
He continued: ‘The girl making the claims remained nameless for legal reasons but I’ve had mine plastered all over the papers.’
He then suggested a change to the existing laws on sexual offences, which are set out to protect the person making the allegations. ‘You’re innocent until proven guilty, not the other way round. Obviously, if you’re found guilty then you can print their name, but I think until then you shouldn’t.’
There are a few issues with this. First of all, it helps build a stigma that says people who cry rape are anything but a tiny minority. Between 2011 and 2013, 5,651 people were prosecuted for rape allegations, and only 35 of the accusations were found to be false.
Also bear in mind 24,043 rapes were reported last year, and that that figure is an improvement on before, because people have been so reluctant to come forward about what’s happened to them. If we’re going to prioritise which numbers are sorted out, surely it’s all the thousands of victims who never see their attacker brought to justice.
Because giving anonymity to the accused doesn’t necessarily help bring justice; if someone’s name is made public, then other victims can more easily identify serial offenders, and they then stand that much higher chance of being punished.
If rape and sexual assault is such a bad crime that being accused of being a rapist can upset you as much as it’s upset Mr Riches, then it must be pretty terrible for the people it actually happens to.
Instead of offering an easy ride to the vast majority of the accused who are sexual offenders and rapists, the authorities need to focus on stopping rape itself. A good place to start on that is to make it known that perpetrators will be held to account.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.