In the majority of prosecutions against men for rape, the men are cleared.

Shortly after yesterday’s broadcast of The Big Questions, a lady sent me an email. ‘Mary Johnson’ is a pseudonym, and the content of her email has been changed only in a very slight way so as ensure the case cannot be identified:

“Just wanted to send you a message of support after watching the debate on today’s show, although you barely got a fair hearing as Natalie constantly interrupted you.  I am quite frankly sick to death of Alison Saunders coming up with yet more ways to make it easier to charge men with rape, I think the fact that reports of rape have gone up by some 30% in the last two years and conviction rates haven’t increased in line with this, speaks for itself.  It would appear that a jury of 12 are considered intelligent enough to reach a verdict on any other crimes, but with rape, it would seem the goalposts are constantly being moved in favour of women.  I read last week that there are more men in jail in the UK for rape than any other country in Europe, this again makes no sense, other than bias in this country’s legal system against men.

You may have guessed that I have a very personal interest in this, my 21 year old son was given a unanimous Not Guilty verdict (the jury deliberated for a very short period of time) 3 weeks ago, but not before our family had been through nearly 18 months of hell. My son was covered in lovebites (proven to have come from this girl from saliva tests) she however did not have a mark, on her saliva tests proved she had performed oral sex on him and she is clearly shown following my son into a taxi outside a pub from CCTV camera footage, but claims she did not give consent.

I thank goodness that we have people like you, David Osborne, Sarah Vine and Barbara Hewson to be brave enough to stick your heads above the parapet, and try to redress the balance.

Best wishes,

Mary Johnson”