Over the last few days I read news about a guy who was a celebrity comic in the UK some years ago. He has been accused of rape and sexual abuse which allegedly took place when he was at the height of his fame. This news circus went on for several days, with questions about it in the UK parliament, his former employers, the BBC, opening internal investigations about him, cutting off his advertising income and yet no sign of any complaint to the police. I read that the police has finally received a formal complaint.
In Spain there are legal cases around the head of Spanish football kissing one f the women’s world cup team members. In Australia, there is no legal case and no police complaint, even though this the country where the kiss took place.
A few months ago there were sexual abuse accusations against the singer of a German band and the German police almost immediately opened an investigation and he was subsequently cleared.
Is Germany now one of the few countries in Europe which still believes in giving people accused of sexual crimes a fair trail?
I don’t want to defend or accuse anyone with my words. Rather I want to defend basic legal principles of the right to a fair trail, the right to face one’s accusers, the presumption of innocence until proven guilty in a court of law and proportionality of punishment of those found guilty.
If those accused turn out to be guilty they should face the consequences of a guilty verdict. If they have not been condemned in a court, then we should hold back on puritanical hate and trial by social media / trial by traditional media until guilt or innocence are fairly established. Basic legal principles are necessary to protect those who have been unjustly accused while ensuring that those who are genuinely guilty are punished proportionately.