Fran Yeoman reports in The Times today about a trial involving an alleged stalker namely a Maria Marchese, who is said to have terrorised a leading psychologist, Jan Falkowski, by bombarding him with threats and forcing him to cancel his wedding.  The Court was told that Ms Marchese ran a “prolonged and malicious campaign” against Mr Falkowski and threatened to kill the woman who was his fiancée, a Miss Deborah Pemberton.

I do not know anything about the case other than that which I have read in The Times report and for all I know, at the conclusion of the trial the jury might throw out the whole case against Ms Marchese. If the allegations are proven, the case is an example of how dangerously irrational a tiny minority of people can become when antagonised in some way.

We are told that part of Ms Marchese's campaign of harassment involved her making an accusation in January 2004 that Dr Falkowski had raped her at St Clement’s Hospital, East London, where he worked.  The prosecution discontinued the case against Dr Falkowski in August 2005.

I should like to know how and where Dr Falkowski's case appears in Home Office statistics.  I can make an educated guess.  It will be one of those cases recorded in that large catchall category "unsuccessful rape prosecutions"; a set of figures that are oft misunderstood by those of a lazy mind, myopic single-issue tendency or challenged critical faculty, as representing the mythical 94.4% of prosecuted rapists who escaped justice.