WITH just one in twenty cases of rape leading to a conviction there have been growing demands for changes to the law to make it easier bring prosecutions.

However, there have also been growing numbers of cases where men have had their rape convictions overturned and prosecutions of women who have made up allegations.

Last month a teenager was jailed after four men were held in police cells for 36 hours after she accused them of rape. Cinzia Sannino, then 17, only admitted her lies when police showed her footage on a mobile telephone of her performing naked lap- dancing for the men after returning home with them from a Cardiff club.

The case led a spokesman for the False Allegations Support Organisation to comment: “Too many people jump on the bandwagon, aware that they can get compensation for false allegations.”

Two weeks later a woman who falsely cried rape against her former husband was also convicted of perverting the course of justice.

Sally Henderson, 40, a mother of two, described by the prosecution as a “wicked liar”, claimed that Richard Cooke, 39, had repeatedly raped her during their year-long marriage.

However, police discovered that her claims were almost identical to false allegations she had made five years earlier against a previous boyfriend, Gloucester Crown Court heard.

Lifting an order preventing her identification, Recorder David Lane, QC, said: “The public has a right to know the identity of a person who makes such allegations and who seeks to use the system of justice for her own, unscrupulous ends.”

A month earlier an obsessed stalker who accused her psychiatrist of rape was convicted of harassment, threats to kill and perverting justice.

Maria Marchese, 45, rummaged through Jan Falkowski’s dustbin for a used condom to clinch DNA evidence. The case against the consultant, of Limehouse, East London, was dropped — but his relationship with his fiancée collapsed.

There have been growing calls for men accused of rape to be granted anonymity until they are convicted.

The Liberal Democrats voted last month to grant anonymity to anyone accused of rape until conviction.

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