Wrongful Convictions · False Allegations · Memory & the Courts
86 stories
Jordan D. Coleman filed a federal lawsuit against Lewis County, WA over his wrongful conviction for sexual assault of a minor.
21 September 2026
Ros Burnett called it the lowest circle of hell. The director of FASO on what a false allegation of sexual abuse does to the accused and their family.
21 September 2026
Khloe Simmonds, 26, has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to eight counts of perverting the course of justice over false rape allegations spanning seven years
19 September 2026
Angela Lipps spent nearly six months in jail after AI facial recognition matched her social media photo to a fake ID used by a bank thief. Her charges were dropped, and she is suing the city of Fargo for $10 million. An extract.
17 September 2026
Organisers of International Falsely Accused Day counted observances in 68 cities across 15 countries on 9 September, from rallies in Argentina, Mexico and Chile to gatherings outside the Royal Courts of Justice and the Scottish Parliament, all pressing for criminal penalties for deliberate false accusers.
15 September 2026
Jennifer Pritchard was jailed for a two-month Facebook campaign falsely accusing her police officer ex-husband of being a rapist and a baby killer. It was the second time she had been jailed for inventing allegations against him.
12 September 2026
Michael Pfleger's lawyer says the Archdiocese of Chicago removed the priest five days before it interviewed his accuser, whose account it found not credible.
10 September 2026
When a priest is accused of sex abuse, should they be removed before an investigation is complete?
10 September 2026
Stacey Sharples was jailed for four-and-a-half years in March after admitting 10 counts of perverting the course of justice. The Court of Appeal has ruled that term unduly lenient and increased it to seven years.
9 September 2026
A 14-page Met document lists dozens of 'inappropriate terms' officers must avoid in reports sent to senior officers and CPS lawyers, and legal experts warn it tells police to abandon neutrality in records that later reach a courtroom.
6 September 2026
A planned lawsuit claims the Department of Homeland Security lied when it accused Ramón Morales Reyes of threatening assassination.
5 September 2026
Wendy McElroy on International Falsely Accused Day, marked each 9 September on Simon Warr's birthday, and why the safeguards of Western jurisprudence exist precisely because accusers sometimes lie.
5 September 2026
The Superior Court of Quebec has ruled that Cardinal Marc Ouellet was the victim of slander and defamation and falsely accused of sexual violence, ordering his accuser to pay 100,000 Canadian dollars for the damage to his reputation.
4 September 2026
The Superior Court of Quebec has found that Cardinal Marc Ouellet was falsely accused of sexual assault, awarding him $100,000 in damages against his accuser — money he says he will donate to organisations fighting the abuse of Indigenous peoples in Canada.
1 September 2026
Marland Yarde, who played for Sale Sharks, saw his life ruined by a woman's false accusations
29 August 2026
A judge exonerated Nancy Smith, an Ohio bus driver, after she was convicted of abusing children in her care. Now, prosecutors want to reverse an order saying she was innocent.
25 August 2026
A Malaysian doctor argues that after police referred a Sabah hospital sexual harassment complaint to prosecutors and the case was classified No Further Action, the accused's presumption of innocence still counts for nothing in public.
20 August 2026
Juno-award winning musician Ashley MacIsaac has ended his defamation suit against Google over its AI overview falsely labelling him as a sex offender. He was originally seeking $1.5 million in damages, but filed a notice of discontinuance in July.
19 August 2026
Supermarket chain says ‘human error’, not its Facewatch technology, to blame for ejecting a customer
17 August 2026
Rooprit Gill, falsely accused in the Horizon scandal, is back working at her former Post Office branch.
17 August 2026
Are Australia’s rape reforms jailing innocent men? NSW costs certificates in sexual assault cases leapt from 28% to 67% in three years — and the men who paid.
5 August 2026
The Michigan attorney general’s office is investigating how the accusation that separated the ex-Cabinet secretary from his 4-year-old twins was handled.
27 July 2026
A Valparaiso mother and father have their kids back after they say the Indiana Department of Child Services wrongfully accused them of abusing their baby.
7 July 2026
Pete Buttigieg says an anonymous report — which police found meritless — led Child Protective Services to separate him from his twins for 24 hours.
27 June 2026
Patrick O'Loan draws a parallel between the grooming gang scandal and the handling of false allegations: in both, institutions feared activist backlash more than injustice.
27 May 2026
The High Court clears the way for a South Australian man to sue his ex-wife for malicious prosecution over false allegations.
18 July 2025
The Falsely Accused Network argues it is time to charge false accusers with the offence of coercive control.
20 May 2025
Police trawling and other tactics
Harvey Proctor on Operation Midland: the guilty men who wrecked innocent lives were never held to account.
4 March 2025
Police allege a group of “claims farmers” recruited former inmates and public-school students to file fraudulent historical child sexual abuse compensation claims, leading to arrests across Sydney.
13 February 2025
The history of the Australian criminal justice system is littered with instances of innocent lives ruined as a result of false accusations and wrongful convictions.
6 November 2024
A Sydney judge ruled a rape complainant used a rehearsed script to manipulate the accused into an apology he did not believe. The charges were then dropped.
11 February 2024
A Bristol criminologist inverts the instruction: if police and prosecutors had to believe every claimed victim of a false allegation, would they accept it?
22 January 2024
Fr Gordon MacRae's own account of the New Hampshire investigation, the plea deals he refused and the 1994 trial that left him serving 33½ to 67 years.
8 January 2024
The much-quoted 5 per cent figure comes from a meta-analysis that excluded whole categories of cases. Two Australian researchers put the real rate above 10 per cent.
21 October 2023
An Adelaide cheerleading coach who had been accused of sexually assaulting girls at a club is acquitted of all charges, after a judge finds the complainants were "not credible or reliable".
29 September 2023
In 2020, a Canadian university tore up its psychology department in search of a non-existent network of sexual predators. Documents obtained by Quillette reveal how administrators allowed it to happen.
14 June 2023
Retired NSW public servant Noel Greenaway, 85, is serving 20 years over 1960s Parramatta Girls allegations — a conviction that turned on tendency evidence.
12 June 2023
Jennifer Gries used claims of rape to punish a co-worker. Activists at Stanford used her lies for their own purposes.
3 April 2023
Research shows one in three Australians think women use sexual assault claims as retribution against men.
28 March 2023
In 2020, a British High Court judge ruled that actor Johnny Depp was probably a “wife beater.” In 2022, an American jury disagreed. Who got it right?
18 January 2023
How unproven sexual assault allegations can create celebrities out of accusers while destroying the lives of the accused.
10 January 2023
Bill Spedding was harassed and ostracised after police laid historical sex charges against him during the William Tyrrell investigation. The NSW Supreme Court found the prosecution was malicious.
1 December 2022
A woman's compulsive lies to police saw her innocent ex-boyfriend jailed twice and confronted by armed officers at his home.
21 October 2022
Head of college of policing said force had ‘overreacted’ to criticism of the handling of historic sexual abuse
15 October 2022
Prosecutors dropped all charges against Father Joseph Jiang. A judge has now ruled he met the legal burden to have his 2014 arrest record expunged.
8 September 2022
When an allegation of abuse dates back decades, probing the reliability of the accuser's memory is often the only defence — and a difficult one to run.
6 September 2022
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A former Duval County teacher of the year said she is devastated and maintains she did nothing wrong after charges of child abuse were…
30 August 2022
Steven Avery from "Making A Murderer" on Netflix (Netflix)
18 August 2022
One of the biggest miscarriages of justice in Britain during the present century has been the conviction of the entertainer Rolf Harris following several…
21 July 2022
Recent tweets by Stanford Law Professor and Amber Heard supporter, Michele Dauber, have viciously attacked Johnny Depp’s attorney Camille Vasquez. Dauber…
3 July 2022
Admin: A must-read from Joseph A. Neuberger & Diana Davison on alarming developments in Canadian law (Neuberger & Partners LLP, Toronto Criminal Lawyers)
1 July 2022
The Media Report on four priests returned to ministry, arguing diocesan review boards set a standard of proof too low for the accused to be exonerated.
27 June 2022
Nicola Sara Watts was jailed for three years four months over a year of false complaints made through fake email, Snapchat and Facebook accounts.
22 June 2022
The singer, who was never arrested or found guilty and strongly denied the claims, was publicly named in a child sex allegation after a police raid on his home in 2014. He is now campaigning for a change in the law so that suspects are only named once they have been charged.
8 June 2022
A Fairfax County jury found for Johnny Depp against Amber Heard — a significant defeat for the #MeToo witch-hunt and a victory for the presumption of innocence and due process.
3 June 2022
The former Justice Secretary says the move would prevent innocent people from having their lives ‘trampled over’
29 May 2022
A Sydney gynaecologist is found not guilty of sexual assault after a judge found the complainant's account bereft of rational explanation.
10 May 2022
Four days into Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against Amber Heard, his testimony paints a very different picture from the #MeToo allegations that damaged his acting career.
23 April 2022
Speaking out: Lady Brittan is seeking justice over the treatment of her husband, the former Home Secretary Leon Brittan, after false allegations were made…
1 March 2022
Prince Andrew has denied allegations made against him by Virginia Giuffre
10 February 2022
To mark the tenth anniversary of his death ITV have broadcast another gratuitous ‘documentary’ about Jimmy Savile, Portrait of a Predator. Needless to say, it…
25 October 2021
The authors of a new report into findings in Family Court matters where sexual abuse was alleged say they began the project because of a lack of data.
9 August 2021
CPI and SAVE commend the US Department of Justice for ending funding for 'Start By Believing' victim-centred investigations.
13 July 2021
SAVE argues one-third of sexual assault allegations in criminal settings are unfounded, contrary to activist claims that false reports are rare.
7 May 2021
The Australian government may fall because of unproven and extremely dodgy 30-year-old rape allegations against a cabinet minister – the unchecked power of the #MeToo movement and its woke media allies is destroying our society.
9 March 2021
A YouGov survey finds 8% of Americans, over 20 million adults, report being falsely accused of domestic violence or abuse.
17 December 2020
Actor Craig McLachlan is found not guilty of all seven charges of indecent assault and six charges of common assault in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court.
15 December 2020
How a preposterous prosecution of the Cook family collapsed, another humiliating failure of Australia's criminal justice system.
7 September 2020
NSW Greens MLC David Shoebridge moved a motion in state parliament on 5 August, calling on the Department of Communities and Justice to release the figures…
14 August 2020
Former head teacher Richard Dunne is exonerated as the DBS closes his case, vindicating him after false allegations.
15 July 2020
In less than three years Ronan Farrow has become the most widely admired journalist in America for a series of scoops that began with an explosive story about…
19 May 2020
The pair, known as A and B, told 'deliberate lies' about a VIP Westminster paedophile ring in 2015, prolonging investigations. The Metropolitan Police ignored advice to investigate the serial liars.
1 May 2020
Sir Richard Henriques’s review found Met officers unlawfully misled a judge to obtain warrants against public figures falsely accused by Carl Beech.
5 October 2019
The Met had vowed not to shy from historical sex abuse after the Jimmy Saville scandal
5 October 2019
For 18 months Carl Beech was the star witness in a Met inquiry into a VIP paedophile ring that never existed. He was jailed for 18 years in 2019.
26 July 2019
Simon Warr on contamination, collusion and concoction: how abuse allegations multiply once compensation enters the picture.
25 March 2019
Seneca Valley girls admitted making false sexual assault accusations against a male student because they 'just don't like him'.
17 October 2018
Archbishop John Charles McQuaid (slandered by Dr Noel Browne and John Cooney)
10 July 2018
Moses Farrow's first-person account of life inside Mia Farrow's household, and why he says the 1992 allegation against Woody Allen never happened.
23 May 2018
Senior trauma and memory researchers say the $500 million royal commission has adopted a misguided victim-advocacy role and published “ethically dubious” research.
30 September 2017
She’s a highly influential activist for childhood trauma survivors. But questions are being asked about Cathy Kezelman’s own shocking story of abuse.
30 September 2017
In the 50s, Arthur Miller used 17th-century Salem to comment on the ‘red scare’. His drama is chillingly pertinent in the first weeks of Trump’s presidency
15 February 2017
Inside Time readers respond to a family's account of a false accuser and wrongful conviction, sharing similar stories.
2 June 2016
An Oxford study of 30 interviews finds teachers and carers cleared of abuse are ‘a new and growing class of victims’, left with wrecked careers and enduring trauma.
19 May 2016
Cafcass social worker Suzi Smith admitted falsely accusing Jonathan Coupland of abusing his daughter, and said police pressured her to stand by the claim.
9 August 2014
The failure of a few prosecutions won't stop the crusade.
19 February 2014