Raped victim accused of false accusations acquitted on appeal

Last Updated: October 6, 2023

A woman living in Madonie had reported being raped. She was not believed and ended up being accused of being a slanderer. The investigators believed that she had falsely accused a man of rape. As a result, she was sentenced to one year and four months of imprisonment by the court of Termini Imerese. However, the first section of the Court of Appeals in Palermo, led by Adriana Piras, accepted the defense lawyer’s argument and overturned the conviction: she was acquitted. The woman had filed a complaint with the Carabinieri, claiming to be a victim of sexual abuse. However, the investigative findings had been negative. Doubts were then raised about her account, and she was charged with slander. The lawyer demonstrated that the man was present at the location of the incident and that her uncle, who was upstairs, did not hear anything because the woman had been restrained from screaming. As soon as the rescuers arrived, called by the victim, she was found in tears. “My client has escaped from a nightmare, after being branded for several years as a slanderer, with the infamous accusation of falsely accusing a man of raping her. We await the outcome of the motivation to determine how to proceed.”