Ten Commandments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3uMgcRUYBs

These Ten Commandments are intended as a guide, to help people who have been falsely accused of a sexual offence. The opinions are strictly my own, and I am not legally trained. However I do write as one who has been through the trauma of false allegations of sexual abuse and have listened to many lectures and read hundreds of articles on the subject. As such, I offer these 10 Commandments that have emerged out of that experience.

I am indebted to other contributors for some of the contents of this article.

Make a timeline and detailed background statement. This will be useful if the complaint becomes official in the future. Write down your relationship or connection with the accuser. How does this person figure in your family if you're related. record any detail, however small or apparently insignificant that may be relevant to the allegation. Family arguments, psychiatric assistance given to your accuser. Try and identify any reason or motive the accuser may have for making a false allegation. Find any potential witnesses who can speak on behalf of your good character and your accuser's character, or who may be able to prove you were not there at that time or any other exculpatory facts. Your Timeline should highlight any significant life events, dates of birth of family and significant persons in your story.

Contact a solicitor immediately. Do not make the fatal mistake of saying you don't want a solicitor, since you are innocent and have nothing to hide. You will need a solicitor who has a proven track record of handling sexual allegations. Do this immediately after the allegation has been made.

For the confused and frightened novice looking to get a free representation it is worth a bit of explanation as to what a police station duty solicitor is. In the first case, they may not even be a solicitor at all in the sense that most people think. They may be lawyers who have passed the law society assessments, but they may have absolutely no experience of actual court work or of representing people in any situation other than police stations. As in all professions, quality varies dramatically. They may be someone whose practice reflects the quality of local law firms, fulfilling the duty rota and doing a decent enough job in the hope of recruiting a client. Mine just sat and said nothing apart from a single too-late useless comment "You shouldn't have said that!" They may give wrong advice because they don't know all the implications. The advice to make a 'No Comment' interview may be good or extremely bad. To know this, your solicitor needs to be a competent adviser. So do some research into cases your solicitor has handled. Do not go to the first one in your town, or the nearest. This information will be on the company prospectus. Give the solicitor the nature of the complaint and your denial. Hand over your case timeline and any background. In doing this, in any future complaint made against you, your case is ready from the very start of the proceeding, and you have a solicitor who is already primed with the knowledge of your case, and who is ready to offer advice and take the case forward on the basis of the information you have already provided. A word of caution. Innocent of not, prepare yourself with the knowledge that you may have a very skilled defence team, but there can be no guarantee of an acquittal.

Treat Seriously any sexual allegation made against you. It doesn't matter if the allegation is bizarre or appears to be insignificant or absurd. Do not ignore it. Even if it has not been reported to the police. Remember that a lie travels twice around the globe before the truth has got its socks on. You have no way of knowing how deep this allegation has gone into the community, or how many other people this lie will inspire or encourage to get on the bandwagon, especially if it is discovered how easy it can be for dishonest or malicious individuals with a vested interest or axe to grind to make application to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. There are many instance of false accusers being paid shed-loads of cash (Carl Beech and Emma Beal for example - along with many others) long before a trial has taken place and a determination of guilt or innocence arrived at. Allegations of sexual crime need to be taken extremely seriously, however innocent they may seem at the time.

Make an immediate record of the allegation. This is key. Write down the detail of the allegation being made against you. The minute you become aware of it. It doesn't matter if it was made directly to you, or you heard it from someone else. Write down who said it, where it was said, and all the surrounding circumstances. Include any details of the allegation(s). If anyone informs you they have heard the same or similar allegation from a third party, do the same with that information. I have personal experience of a leading member of my community with a particular agenda spreading lies implicating me in a series of sexual crimes in my community. Acting immediately by recording it and reporting the incident to a bishop (I am a retired Anglican cleric, and in this particular case my false accuser had told his lie to at least three other people that I became aware of.) In this way I came into possession of an email trail with the bishop and two others, which will act as evidence that I had made a report should this individual choose to continue his campaign of lies against me.

If you are arrested contact and instruct a solicitor immediately following. By this time you will have contacted a solicitor. People who are falsely accused often think "It will blow over. Nothing will come of it. It's fantasy. It'll go away" Nothing could be further from the truth. I won't go away. Also, when the police have listened and recorded what you have to say, it is foolish to think you can go it alone. You can't. It doesn't matter how intelligent, articulate, clever, worldly wise, important or innocent you are, it is always advisable to be accompanied by a good solicitor who has experience in dealing with these cases. You have entered into an alien area of expertise in which you have had no training and no personal experience.

Despite the stories you may hear about amazing individuals successfully carrying-through their own defence to a triumphant conclusion, this is fantasy. In the same way that you would not want a locksmith to perform keyhole surgery on you in the operating room, or try to perform it yourself, you should not expect yourself as an amateur practitioner to achieve the best outcome in the courtroom.

Stay Calm through your interview. Although it is quite legal for the police to put you in a police cell, sometimes for hours before your interview, the (yes, it is legal), the psychological impact on you can be devastating. Many people are arrested without warning in the early hours of the morning, often in the presence of their family, wife, partner, children. Entirely unexpected in the middle of an ordinary day your life become something it had never been before. The arrest is a trauma experience for you, your children and your spouse. You are now a criminal suspect. Nothing will ever be the same again.

Naturally, you will feel abandoned, alone and vulnerable. By the time your interview comes around there will be just one thought in your mind. "How soon can I get out of this custody suite or police station and go home?"

This procedure may partly achieve a positive effect for the police. It may even be a deliberate police strategy in some stations, but it may also be because of a lack of police resources who kindly want to shorten the period of your incarceration. It can function as a 'softening-up' process. In that interview, think before you answer. Take your time. Stop to breathe if you need to. You have the right to visit the lavatory and to remain hydrated if necessary. Do not react or respond quickly. Do not become emotional. When an exploratory question about your family, relationships, personal history etc is asked, reply firmly and confidently. If you can't remember, say so. This may apply especially in the case of historical allegations. People do forget. A good solicitor will advise you regarding the type of heavy-handed repetitive questioning that can have the effect of making you believe you have done something you have forgotten about or that you didn't do. Do not speculate in your answers, or suggest alternative possibilities (such as you may see suspects doing in 'Columbo' on the TV!) It is not your job to guide your investigators, but simply to answer their questions as truthfully and honestly as possible. Remember, they are the trained experts. If this is a false rape or sexual allegation charge, remember that you are up against an often unscrupulous and determined enemy. Many detectives are full-on believers in the myth that all men are rapists or sexual predators and that no woman lies about these things. Do not ever think about them as the friendly on-the-beat bobby who comes round to your house when you were burgled that time. You are innocent and you are facing an implacable machine that is out to get you behind bars where they already think you belong

Tell your solicitor and the police about any health issues, psychological / psychiatric learning difficulties that you or your false accuser may have. It may be that you do in fact have an underlying major health issue that you are unaware of. At the time of my arrest and trial I had been suffering from a terminal cancer, draining my strength and lowering my immune system. I did not ask for a medical check. Had I done so, it may have given the judge cause to direct the jury in a different way. I don't know. But it may be worth getting a medical check. just in case. Whatever you decide, let the solicitor choose whether any of these are relevant to your case and the conduct of your defence. As with everything else, it is vital that any information of this nature is made available to your defence team as soon as possible. It is of paramount importance and may be crucial to the conduct of your interview and the preparation of your future defence. It is possible that your own health and that of your false accuser may affect how you yourself, and your false accuser give evidence, and how the jury should be directed how to consider it.

In my case, it was discovered that my accuser was suffering a series of confabulations and multi-sense fantasies as a result of extreme PTSD and psychological ill-health. As soon as this fact became accepted by the prosecution, the case was stopped and I was offered an apology for a wrongful prosecution by the Crown. So it does matter.

Get actively involved in preparing for your defence. Don't ignore what happening and think it's all being done for you. Remember cuts in legal aid and limited financial resources will put constraints on the lengths your solicitor can go to. There is not an unlimited amount of time she/he can spend in your defence. Get hole of a copy of the prosecution case (which you are entitled to), and go through it line-by-line. This can be time-consuming and frustrating as well as emotionally demanding, but it is essential work. It may help to go through this with a trusted friend. Make sure your solicitor gets a copy of everything you write, line-by-line. Number the lines if this helps. The solicitor will then send these comments to counsel. Factual comments and observations are helpful. Do not just repeat how terrible you are feeling or how ridiculous the allegations are. Although the time that lapses between first arrest and actually coming to trial, with all the negative emotional consequences this entails, and it does for everybody, one of the few positive aspects of this lengthy time is that it gives you space to do this task effectively and in detail. It also provides plenty of time for your legal team to consider whether there will be a need for an expert report. This is always needed well in advance of a trial.

Carefully walk through your interview strategy with your solicitor. What is her/his best advice? Should you opt for 'no comment', should you submit a prepared statement. At this point, there's no set procedure or hard and fast rule. Remember that there are legal consequences of refusing to answer police questions. Ask your solicitor to explain these to you before you opt for a particular course of action. My feeling is that whilst you are a person of previous good character - in legal terms, this means that you have no prior convictions - you should seek advice on whether to give a straightforward police interview, which will be tape-recorded. The advice for you to do this will probably be based on two factors. First, that there has been the appropriate pre-interview disclosure to let you know enough about the complaint, and secondly, that you are medically (mentally and physically) fit enough to undergo what you may find to be a traumatic police interrogation.

NOTE: The default police position at the stage of interview regarding previous convictions (in establishing good character) will ignore the fact that you were convicted of any criminal offence in the past, even if it was a very minor offence. You must inform your solicitor of this. In my case, I was convicted of TWOC-ING (taking and driving away a motor vehicle without the owner's consent) as a teenager and 10-year-old. For the TWOC-ING I was sentenced to borstal training at age 19. I noted the immediate change in the police attitude towards me on informing them of this fact. Their attitude was strengthened when they saw my borstal tattoo. So tread carefully. Keep your solicitor informed.

Discuss and agree the future conduct of your trial. Identify the counsel your solicitor wishes to use as soon as possible. Make sure you meet your barrister long before the trial. More and more, higher court advocates are conducting serious cases in the Crown Court. Whoever is going to represent you at trial, as for a resume or CV. You are also entitled to receive an Advice on Evidence and to a conference(s). Make sure you understand and agree hoe the advocate intends to present your case well before the trial. You need to know which witnesses will be called, the cross-examination of your false accuser, and how/whether you will be likely to give evidence. A final decision may only be made at the trial.

Some of this content was kindly provided to the MFMS by a helpful barrister and published in the Newsletter Vol. 20, No. 1 - October 2012.