False Rape Accusation: Criminal Defence

The false rape accusation is one of the most complex phenomena of contemporary criminal law. The accused simultaneously faces serious criminal proceedings —with penalties reaching 15 years of prison if penetration and aggravating factors of Art. 180 CP concur— and an immediate social stigmatization that operates as anticipated conviction before any judicial resolution. The presumption of innocence of Art. 24.2 of the Spanish Constitution is an inderogable constitutional rule, but its practical effectiveness requires active, not merely reactive, technical defence. Consolidated Supreme Court case-law assesses the victim's statement, when it is the sole incriminating evidence, against three parameters that serve as guidance —they are neither legal requirements nor cumulative—: absence of subjective unreliability (absence of spurious motives such as custody, revenge, social pressure), objective plausibility (corroboration through peripheral elements) and persistence in incrimination (internal coherence without essential contradictions).

Among the typologies of false accusation described by forensic psychology are accusations instrumentalised in family proceedings: conflictive separations, custody disputes, family-home attribution, where the accusation operates as a negotiating weapon to obtain advantages in civil proceedings. Accusations from post-encounter regret reclassify an initially consensual sexual act after intervention of external factors (steady partner, family pressure, social shame, unwanted pregnancy). Accusations from personal revenge arise after romantic breakups, job terminations, neighborhood or academic conflicts. Accusations from psychiatric disorders of the accuser, especially borderline personality disorders or psychoses, can distort reality perception. Accusations from economic blackmail seek civil compensation under pressure of criminal penalty.

The applicable criminal framework to the falsely accused is severe. The basic sexual assault (Art. 178 CP) carries 1 to 4 years' prison; with penetration (Art. 179 CP), 4 to 12 years; with aggravating factors of Art. 180 CP (special vulnerability, joint action, use of weapons), up to 15 years. The accessory consequences are devastating: mandatory registration in the Central Sex Offenders Registry (RD 1110/2015), cancelled under the criminal-record rules if the victim is an adult, disqualification for professions with minors, prohibition of approach to the accuser, 5 to 10 years' supervised release (1 to 5 for less serious offences), asset garnishment for civil liability. The counter-action after acquittal is channeled through Art. 456 CP on false accusation or report, which punishes with 6 months to 2 years of prison and a 12 to 24 months' fine where the offence imputed is serious (only the fine if it is less serious) whoever, with knowledge of falsehood or reckless disregard for truth, imputes to another person acts constituting criminal infraction. It is a complementary but complex route: it requires proving the subjective falsehood of the accuser, not the mere acquittal of the accused due to evidential insufficiency.

Specialized technical defence is built on four axes. First, the psychological credibility expert evidence: application of CBCA (Criteria-Based Content Analysis) and SVA (Statement Validity Analysis) protocols by qualified forensic psychologists analysing internal consistency of testimony, presence of sensory details, reality versus invention criteria, and possible spurious motives. Second, the exhaustive digital forensic extraction: WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, Telegram, email, GPS geolocation from Google Timeline, photos with EXIF metadata, card records (taxis, hotels, restaurants); a cordial or affectionate message after the encounter can destroy the assault narrative. Third, the chronological factual reconstruction: urban and private video surveillance cameras, direct and indirect witnesses, verification of coincidence between the accuser's version and objective data. Fourth, the procedural and constitutional challenge: exercise of the right not to testify (Art. 24 of the Spanish Constitution), control of precautionary measures to avoid pretrial detention, presentation of exculpatory evidence in investigation phase, rigorous articulation of the defence brief.

In current forensic practice, alleged sexual assault proceedings with suspected falsehood have increased after the reforms of LO 10/2022 and LO 4/2023, which have expanded the typical catalogue under the consent principle. Organic Law 1/2025 on Justice Service Efficiency has modified deadlines and procedural guarantees. Constitutional case-law on presumption of innocence and right to defence and settled Supreme Court doctrine on the three guiding parameters for assessing the victim's statement configure a demanding protective framework that defence must rigorously activate. At Alonso Sala, our criminal lawyers specialized in defence against false sexual assault accusations coordinate multidisciplinary teams with forensic psychologists, computer experts, family law specialists (when the accusation is instrumentalized in custody disputes) and experts in State liability. The intervention must be immediate: every hour without digital evidence preservation is a potentially lost evidentiary path; every premature statement by the investigated may compromise the defensive strategy. If the case ends in acquittal, we articulate the counter-actions of Art. 456 CP and the civil claim for moral damages, as well as State liability (Art. 294 Organic Law of the Judiciary) if there was undue pretrial detention.