Not Fit For Purpose

The scandals surrounding failures of police/CPS disclosure and the consequent collapse of trials – mostly, but not exclusively, to do with allegations of rape or sexual assault – just keep coming. Almost every day brings a fresh revelation concerning the withholding by police or prosecutors of vital information which might have assisted the defence.

We are being asked to believe that these appalling failures within our justice system can be attributed to human error, to tight budgets or to staff shortages. Personally, I don’t believe a word of this self-serving flannel. Key evidence is being withheld from defence teams, judges and members of juries – and even, on occasions, from barristers representing the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), because convictions at all costs, especially when defendants have been charged with sexual offences, suit the current ideological dogmas prevalent within both police forces and the CPS.

Even a cursory glance through the latest official CPS report on ‘Violence Against Women and Girls’ (note that there is no mention of violence against men or boys in that title!), issued on 10 October 2017, reveals just how target-driven our justice system has become in recent years (basic common sense tells us pre-set targets and justice are mutually incompatible). In fact, the CPS report celebrates rising prosecution and conviction statistics. For example, it highlights that successful prosecutions of sexual offences (including rape and child abuse) have increased by 14 percent since 2015-2016. Needless to note, there is absolutely no reference to wrongful convictions or to people currently spending time at Her Majesty's Pleasure while maintaining innocence.

The CPS report also boasts how prosecutions for alleged sexual offences against children (including historical cases) have increased by 82 percent in a decade, while convictions are at an all time high of 89 percent. What we don’t know, of course, is how many of the contested trials took place against a background of withheld evidence which might have supported the defendants’ version of events. Many accused people – especially when the alleged incidents date back decades – are quite literally fighting these cases with both hands tied behind their backs.

Of course, target-driven justice was always fated to produce miscarriages of justice. Ideological dogma (and no doubt hopes of promotion) places pressure on police officers to ‘cut corners’ and to abandon traditional even-handed policing methods of following up inquiries wherever they may lead, even if evidence emerges that undermines the accuser’s account of events.

In my own case, elementary detective work could have saved me two years of hell on earth. It was established within ten minutes of my first interview that, contrary to what was being alleged, I had never taught PE or junior school games during the early 1980s. It would not have needed Detective Columbo, even at that early stage of the so-called 'investigation', to expose the lies being told by my false accuser, who was doubtless hoping for a compensation payout and another spot in the limelight. But the police officers, from the very beginning, obviously made a decision not to make any inquiries with former colleagues or ex-pupils which might undermine their quest to have me convicted. Instead, they pushed on with a prosecution which ended my teaching career and cost me my home, even though I was eventually acquitted by a unanimous jury in a matter of minutes. Ultimately, there was little, if anything, to discuss! Meanwhile, the liar and his supportive friend, who both attempted to frame me, have walked away with no negative consequences and their anonymity intact.

Since my own 672 day ordeal finished in 2014, I have become aware of other similar cases where the lies of fraudsters and fantasists have gone unchallenged and not investigated by the police. There are people whom I believe to be innocent who have been convicted and imprisoned, in some cases for years, and had their lives destroyed at the altar of the cruel dogma of set targets. Responsibility for these appalling miscarriages of justice must be shared by the police and CPS because their basic procedures and practices have become fundamentally flawed and unbalanced due to fatuous nonsense such as the mantra ‘you will be believed’, regardless of how ludicrous or obviously bogus such allegations may be.

The very fact that the CPS has now been forced by negative media coverage and rising public concern to review all pending rape and sexual assault prosecutions is evidence that something is very rotten within the culture of the police and the CPS. It remains to be seen how many of these cases where defendants may have already had their lives wrecked, their jobs and/or homes lost, their safety constantly threatened, their family life ruined, will eventually be abandoned. All this trauma is being suffered because of a failure on the part of police and prosecutors to follow the law by disclosing evidence which might have assisted an innocent person's defence.

However welcome a genuine review of current prosecutions may be, it is far from being sufficient. The perverse practices now being exposed – such as failing to disclose vital evidence or refusing to interview potential witnesses because their evidence might assist the defence – must end now. (I can't believe that in any fair, just society I am forced to write this statement).

All target-based approaches to prosecutions must also be ended because constant demands by the CPS (and its cheerleaders in the media and in radical pressure groups) have simply encouraged police and prosecutors to abandon the basic rules of our justice system in order to pursue convictions at any cost. The presumption of innocence, as well as robust, impartial detective work by police officers, needs to be returned to the heart of our criminal justice system.

DPP Alison Saunders

Moreover, ALL contested cases, where those convicted are maintaining their innocence, must be urgently reviewed and case files examined by independent barristers and caseworkers, who do not answer to the police nor the CPS. The ridiculous assertion by Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders that no innocent people are in prison due to disclosure failures is both shockingly complacent and certain to be wrong. How can someone in such a senior position be allowed to make such a preposterous statement with impunity?

It is vital to acknowledge that misconduct by police and prosecutors that could, and does, lead to miscarriages of justice hasn’t just started in the past few weeks… it has been embedded in our unbalanced justice system for years, exacerbated, of course, by 'the Savile effect'. It’s only now that the general public is becoming aware of the sheer wickedness which has been going on behind closed doors for far too long. Justice demands a root and branch reform of both police practices and the misguided, ideologically motivated policies of the CPS, which have led directly to the present crisis.

An Open Letter to Alison Saunders

A copy of my Open Letter to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders.

Dear Ms Saunders,

Like many people who have had first-hand experience of our criminal justice system, I was dumbfounded by your recent assertion on the BBC Radio 4 'Today' programme, that no innocent victims are languishing in prison as a result of disclosure failures by the police and/or the Crown Prosecution Service. The statement is as absurd as your predecessor's that 'all complainants of historical sexual abuse will be believed.' How people who secure senior appointments such as the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) can make such preposterous statements is beyond me.

Ms Saunders, how could you possibly know that there are no innocent victims suffering as a result of disclosure failures? Pray, tell me, how?

These puerile claims do everyone who is involved in the criminal justice system no credit at all. Anyone who has had a 'taste' of British justice in recent years, particularly in alleged sex abuse cases, knows that the whole system is set up solely to produce convictions at almost any cost. Any defendant will have a mountain to climb to prove his or her innocence. (Let's stop pretending that in alleged sex abuse cases it is innocent until proven guilty).

We all know that once the police arrest someone they feel it is their bounden duty to secure a conviction. We all know that any evidence to cast doubt on the prosecution case will tend to be ignored. Yet, you attempt to whitewash what has become a broken, unbalanced system and this serves to damage your high office as the DPP. Asserting, as you do, that there is no need for the police to review media accounts and mobile phones in such cases is to shut down, potentially, vital avenues of inquiry. This very issue seems to be one of the key reasons prosecution cases are now collapsing on what is virtually a weekly basis. (Full marks to prosecuting counsel Jerry Hayes for getting the ball rolling).

How can you possibly continue to maintain this arrogant fiction that no innocent people are rotting in jail on account of the biased m.o. of the police and/or CPS? The truth is you cannot possibly know unless you order a review of disclosure procedures in every contested prosecution case that has ended in a conviction. After all, juries in criminal trials are under oath to try cases solely on the basis of evidence presented to them during the trial. If crucial evidence which might assist the defence is held back, then such trials can be neither fair nor just. It is no surprise that the recent public collapse of several criminal prosecutions has cast serious doubt in the minds of the general public about the competence - and bona fides - of the entire prosecution system here in the UK.

The CPS, under your leadership, seems to be continuing misguided policies that were introduced for largely ideological reasons. Your unlamented predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer, now a Labour shadow minister, did immense damage to our justice system by politicising the role of the CPS. As DPP, you have rendered a bad situation worse.

British justice used to be the envy of the world, something of which we could all be justifiably proud. Now it is becoming inexorably a national disgrace. Ms Saunders, people's lives are being destroyed due to appallingly one-sided and unbalanced police 'investigations' (try reading my latest book 'Presumed Guilty'; and I was one of the lucky ones!). These 'investigations' presuppose guilt and, what is worse, seem institutionally inclined to conceal or suppress evidence that might undermine prosecutions. In this way they boost the chances of the prosecutors hitting your arbitrary, ideological targets for 'successful' results, i.e. accused people being found guilty.

Ms Saunders, you have spent most of your professional career inside the CPS and it isn't hard to understand why you see no reason to pursue meaningful reform or to challenge the current status quo. Could there be a better reason to consider the ethics of promoting someone from within the system to the post of DPP?

Rather than grandstanding in the media, you might well be advised to look more closely at the reasons public confidence in our criminal justice system is being undermined - an issue highlighted this week by the former Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge. The law of unintended consequences of the present unbalanced, unfair approach to these 'investigations' might just be that juries will no longer have confidence that they have heard all the relevant evidence and acquit the guilty.

Ms Saunders, we all know that miscarriages of justice are a fact within our legal system. If they were not, then the Court of Appeal would not be quashing convictions. And I can tell you that the chancers/liars/fantasists are rarely hauled into a court of law, even when they are shown to be just what they are. (I am still awaiting for the two liars who falsely accused me to be called to account).

The system is stacked against those accused and the complainants, often referred to as 'victims' from the outset, are supported throughout. For an innocent person, found guilty in a court of law, has little chance of a case review unless there is incontrovertible evidence to prove that innocence. Which makes fair, balanced initial investigations all the more important.

Ms Saunders, there are innocent people rotting in our dangerous prisons. These people are victims, just like those who have been genuinely raped or abused. This latest assertion by you that only the guilty are being punished, are having their lives ruined, gives the impression you are either out of touch with reality or in denial.

Yours sincerely,

Simon Warr

We Must End The Compensation Craze

Happy New Year to all. I do hope many of those who are suffering at the hands of the state, following malicious false allegations of abuse, will this year receive the justice they deserve. I feel the tide is at last turning.

Vile fantasist 'Nick' 

I have a few questions. Does that appalling fantasist 'Nick', still have his greedy hands on the £50,000 injuries' compensation money he received from state coffers for his false claims of having been abused by, among others, ex-Tory Home Secretary Leon Britton and ex-Army Chief, Lord Bramall? 'Nick' has been shown to be a cruel, manipulative liar and, in any decent, just society, he should be sent to prison for a long time but this is Great (ha ha) Britain, still suffering from 'the Savile effect', a time when perjury and perverting the course of justice are permitted... as long as you claim to be a victim of sexual abuse. What's more, you can keep the compensation pay out, it seems, even if you have been found to be lying!

'Chronic liar' Danny Day

Next, does that 'chronic liar', Danny Day (he has waived his anonymity so can be named and shamed), still have his hands on the £11,000 he was awarded for falsely claiming he was raped by ex-fire chief David Bryant in the 1990s? Not only should every last penny be repaid by now, the repellent specimen of humanity, Day, should be behind bars, serving a sentence well in excess of the stretch poor Mr. Bryant had to endure on account of Day's lies. Oh, of course, this is Great Britain which has seemingly little interest in punishing perjury and attempts to pervert the course of justice, even if all this has led to the ruin of an innocent man's life.

Of course, it is more tricky to lie your way to a gigantic slice of unmerited state funds by claiming the alleged abuse happened recently because the defence team will have a small(!) chance to prove you're telling lies, as we have seen in a number of recent, high profile cases. Faked historical abuse claims are so much less risky.

No, having endured the horrific process myself, I would tell any greedy, grubby liars that an allegation which is historical is far safer because it'll be a devil of a job for someone accused to prove his/her innocence (this judicial volte face is what is required in courts nowadays). I was lucky because the pair of grubby chancers who lied about me were too thick to come up with a plausible false account. However, since my acquittal in 2014, I have got to know a number of other innocent people who were not so lucky. One of them was accused of historical abuse after the single complainant had been coached by a malicious third party to ensure his account could stand up in a court (the accuser was far too stupid to invent a plausible story himself).

I imagine many of these liars will know how to play it because there is so much advice available from those 'riding white chargers' the personal injury lawyers. Try typing 'abuse compensation' into a search engine and you can take your pick where you go. In the case of the motor industry, they are called 'ambulance chasers' and the government has finally woken to the fact that the system is being swamped by greedy liars. So the PI lawyers, always with their eyes on the next lucrative market, (these people never advertise the fact that their fees are usually in excess of the compensation money paid out to the claimant), realise that they are on much safer ground dealing with cases of sexual abuse, leaning towards historical claims, because these are almost impossible to prove either way.

These PI lawyers rarely tout for business in low profile cases within families, where most genuine abuse occurs, because it's unlikely to be lucrative enough, with no insurance money to get their hands on and most families themselves have only limited funds. Far better to attack schoolteachers/care workers and the rich and famous... potentially lots of money on offer!

I am calling for an immediate end to the handing out of large sums of compensation payments, much of which comes of of taxpayers' pockets. Sexual abuse complainants should not be regarded as immune from the temptations and incentives, particularly financial, that drive human beings generally. These payments are making a mockery of British justice.

If someone has genuinely been abused, then he or she should be entitled to whatever professional help is required, as the victim strives to survive that abuse. The perpetrator should, accordingly, be sentenced to a long stretch behind bars. This should provide more than adequate, appropriate support for anybody who has suffered real abuse.

As for those who have lied their way to receiving a wad of state cash, they should hang their repugnant heads in shame, preferably behind bars, for a substantial tranche of their lives. But, of course, this is Great Britain, and the old boys' club of the judiciary/CPS/police don't consider all this lying, this perjury, this perverting the course of justice important enough to investigate.

Once again, may 2018 see a turning of the tide. It's only right and fair.