Wrongful Convictions · False Allegations · Memory & the Courts
23 stories
New rape courtrooms in England and Wales and pre-recorded evidence in NSW are sold as easing delays and stress for complainants. What about a fair trial for the accused?
25 September 2026
A Montana lawyer from a family of prosecutors argues that mistaken eyewitness testimony and pressure on doubting jurors send innocent people to prison — and that those who doubt deserve respect.
22 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
When a priest is accused of sex abuse, should they be removed before an investigation is complete?
10 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
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 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
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
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
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
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
Jennifer Gries used claims of rape to punish a co-worker. Activists at Stanford used her lies for their own purposes.
3 April 2023
How unproven sexual assault allegations can create celebrities out of accusers while destroying the lives of the accused.
10 January 2023
Head of college of policing said force had ‘overreacted’ to criticism of the handling of historic sexual abuse
15 October 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
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
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
Weinstein’s conviction has established the “breakthrough” principle that a criminal conviction can be secured without reliable and verifiable evidence. The working class and poor will suffer the consequences.
26 February 2020
The failure of a few prosecutions won't stop the crusade.
19 February 2014