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The article below is from the Herald

A QUESTION mark hangs over the conviction of three men who each served six years for the brutal gang rape of an Edinburgh woman, after claims that the victim confessed to friends that she had consented to sex and made the accusations in order to claim criminal compensation.

 

David Pugh, Brian Meighan and Kevin Kane , also known as the Fernieside Three have protested their innocence from the begining.

All three men rejected parole, as it depended on them accepting their guilt. Which is something they have steadfastly refused to do.

 

Scott Blair, a friend of the victim, known only as Miss J, has given a legal statement in which he states that a week after the rape he overheard a conversation between Miss J and another friend.

During the conversation Miss J admitted she was not raped and said she'd invented the allegations to obtain money and attention.

The story is backed up by the other friend, who claims Miss J told her that she'd made the claims in order to secure money from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.

A third acquaintance has also submitted a legal statement in which she states Miss J told her that she wanted to drop the charges against the three accused, but claimed she'd been prevented from doing so by the police. However, she also said that she made the allegations "for a laugh".

A fourth person said in a legal statement that in the days following the rape, Miss J admitted that she was not raped, and added that she was going to ask the police to drop the case.

The gang-rape took place in mid-November 1999. In the early hours of a Saturday morning, Miss J was at a drinks party on the 14th floor of a multi-storey block called Little France House, in Edinburgh.

Pugh and Kane were in Meighan's flat on the third floor when they heard Miss J shouting outside. Miss J later went into Meighan's flat, where she said the rape took place.

She initially told police that she'd been raped on the stairway and could not identify her attackers.

However, police later viewed CCTV footage which showed that Miss J had taken the lift to the third floor and walked in through the open door of Meighan's flat.

Miss J later returned to the 14th floor party and said she'd been assaulted. DNA tests showed that there was evidence that Meighan had engaged in sexual activity with Miss J. There was no DNA match for Kane or Pugh.

The men say that Miss J had come to the flat, spoken of having fantasies involving group sex, began kissing one of them and then led the three into the bedroom where she engaged in sexual activity with them. They claim she left the flat in a happy mood and gave them her address.

The Sunday Herald spoke to one of the three men - David Pugh - in Peterhead Prison. Peterhead houses Scotland's worst sexual offenders. It also provides rapists and paedophiles with a relatively safe haven as they do not have to mix with "ordinary" criminals. Sex offenders run the risk of being attacked when in a prison's general population.

Pugh said: "[Miss J] did it for the money. I think her actions were all premeditated." He said the police encouraged Miss J to pursue the case, adding: "We are all innocent."

"I'm locked in here with paedophiles, rapists, serial killers and even necrophiliacs," he said. "I've spent months behind my cell door as I'm frightened of these people. Me and my family have been through hell. My mother and father are serving a sentence too.

"This has been a nightmare. There has been doubt in this case from the beginning."

Pugh's mother, Aileen, said that she had spoken to Miss J's close family members, one of whom believed that Miss J might be lying.

The Sunday Herald spoke to the same close family member and was told the same thing. "I believe that [Miss J] could have made this up," the family member said.

The Miscarriage of Justice Organisation, which is based in Glasgow and was set up by Paddy Hill of the Birmingham Six, is supporting the three men in their attempts to secure an appeal.

Organiser John McManus said: "Rape is a horrendous crime, but so is locking up innocent people for crimes they never committed. We can only hope the SCCRC allows this case to go back to the appeal court and that justice will prevail.

"When someone is accused of rape, we lean on the side of the victim, but what happens if the victim is actually the accused? We need an open mind about all offences. There are problems of low conviction rates in rape cases, but there are also problems regarding an increase in the number of false accusations in rape cases."