The case for dealing with this heinous crime in a special way

The acquittal of the snooker player Quinten Hann on a charge of rape has once again raised the question of anonymity for women who accuse men of this crime. That is understandable; it does seem unfair that women are protected from publicity in such cases, whether their claims are well founded or not, and even when they are vexatious.

For a man, there is no such protection, and the stigma of the accusation can easily outlast a "not guilty" verdict. Mud sticks, in other words, and it can blight a man's reputation and destroy him. Yet a woman can make a series of untrue allegations without ever running the risk of being named. So arises the argument for anonymity for the accused to match that for the accuser.

There is certainly a strong case for a man who has been cleared of rape to have his identity protected, and the law should be changed to allow this. But lifting the anonymity of his accuser is a different matter. Rape is a special case when it comes to the law for a very good reason; because of the nature of the crime, it has always been extremely difficult to prove, and trials can often become a frightening ordeal for the woman. The problem with the crime of rape, in other words, isn't that there are too many women making allegations against men, but that too few are willing to do so.

The introduction of anonymity for the accuser reflects how much has changed over the past two decades or so in terms of the attitude to rape of the police and the criminal justice system. Until recently, men conducting their own defence could subject their accusers to humiliating questioning. However, barristers still subject women to distressing interrogation, and even today the notion that a woman is "asking for it" if she, say, wears a mini skirt is still too popular. Rape in marriage is only now being taken seriously. And it would be a brave prostitute who expected a sympathetic hearing for an accusation of rape.

Rape is an asymmetrical crime, in which the victim is at an intrinsic disadvantage. Removing anonymity from the accuser would only make the process of securing justice even more daunting, and allow even more rapists to go unpunished.