Documentary about investigation of sex crimes

[Casehardened]

A three part documentary about of the work of the GMP sex crimes investigation unit will be screened on BBC 2 on Sunday 17th of May at 9 pm.

This is not strictly relevant to the forum as it relates to 'genuine' sex crimes but the preview I saw this morning suggests that there will be some insight into police interview techniques which may well be of interest to members.

[Rights Fighter]

That will be of interest to me so thanks for that, I will watch it.

I won a big law book "Sexual Offences Handbook" which lays out in great detail how these cases should be investigated and taken through to trial and appeal. Hopefully I will find time to read it in between appeal work and other stuff!

[frightened spouse]

http://t.co/iV7oLefbNt I will also be watching it, however this article doesn't look too promising

[Rights Fighter]

I saw that earlier and posted it in the Facebook group. Near the end of the article is this:

"Around the corner, a detective was investigating a crime which from the outset looked unlikely to ever reach court. A 14-year-old girl in Bolton, already known to police as being at high risk of child sexual exploitation (CSE), had accused an older man of raping her while her friend went off and had consensual sex with another man.

The officers who attended the scene quickly encountered a problem: her friend insisted it was all lies and that the pair had stuck together all evening. Looking through the alleged victim’s file on the police computer, it emerged that this is not the first time she has made an allegation of rape. But an officer must still dedicate time to the case, in consultation with a dedicated CSE unit.

The new victim-focused approach can be “massively frustrating” when officers know people are wasting their time by making false reports, admitted Larkin: “We do get people making up allegations because they want to get their own back, for whatever reason. If A and B are courting and A has an affair with C, sometimes B will say that A has raped her … It’s not massively common but it isn’t uncommon either.”

Later, Larkin’s boss, Chadwick, explained that less than 3% of all rape reports received by GMP turn out to be fabricated. But unlike other forces, GMP has never prosecuted a victim for making a false allegation. Instead, they have dished out the odd fixed-penalty fine for wasting police time. “The numbers are very low,” said Chadwick. “One of the considerations is the vulnerability of the victim. Generally those people making false reports have some sort of vulnerability.”"

Even if it is only 3% that are false allegations, the fall-out and terrible effect on the accused and their families is terrible. I've known women forced to divorce their husbands in order to keep the children with them. When some of our guys have served their time and are released, often probation will isolate them from their support systems.

One guy who is a member on here, has had to make the decision to stop all contact with forum members as the probation officer was going to ring them. Given she lied blatantly to me about the case, and I had to correct her, I have no doubt she would have lied to other supporters too. So wrong.

They rarely prosecute the false accusers because they think that will stop genuine accusers coming forward. It wouldn't stop me if something awful happened to me.

[frightened spouse]

I'm 10 minutes into this documentary and I really can't bring myself to watch anymore.

These police are so sure of themselves and their "believe the victim" mentality it is really chilling.

Jon Chadwick Detective Superintendent Greater Manchester Police " The ABC of being a detective is

Assume nothing
Believe no one
Check Everything

If you treat a rape victim like that you've already gone horribly wrong. And that's why it's a specialism"

[Casehardened]

The programme was always going to be skewed as it only covered cases where the accused had been convicted in court but even so it was editorially biased by mingling the reporting of a case which was an obvious sudden unprovoked assault on a genuinely innocent girl (as instanced by the accused being kept in custody until charge) with a very historical one in which there was a element of consent (the victim, by her own admission returned several times to the accused's flat, on one occasion with a friend) with the presumed objective of painting all complainants in the same light.

We know from our experiences that this should not be so and it is therefore chilling to hear of the official police view as highlighted by FS. The only saving grace is that one of the female detectives said they would look for corroboration 'otherwise it would be one word against another'.

It was significant that the police unit filmed is based in Rochdale so the programme may well be politically inspired. Episodes 2 & 3 follow tonight and tomorrow, as I mentioned it is worth watching to understand the interview techniques used.

[Rights Fighter]

The programme was always going to be skewed as it only covered cases where the accused had been convicted in court but even so it was editorially biased by mingling the reporting of a case which was an obvious sudden unprovoked assault on a genuinely innocent girl (as instanced by the accused being kept in custody until charge) with a very historical one in which there was a element of consent (the victim, by her own admission returned several times to the accused's flat, on one occasion with a friend) with the presumed objective of painting all complainants in the same light.

We know from our experiences that this should not be so and it is therefore chilling to hear of the official police view as highlighted by FS. The only saving grace is that one of the female detectives said they would look for corroboration 'otherwise it would be one word against another'.

It was significant that the police unit filmed is based in Rochdale so the programme may well be politically inspired. Episodes 2 & 3 follow tonight and tomorrow, as I mentioned it is worth watching to understand the interview techniques used.

She was 12 years of age though, as were most of the other complainants, give or take. There can be no excuse for having sex with such young girls, regardless of how eager they might have appeared at the time. He was the grown up and should have put a stop to it there and then.

[edinashed]

I'm 10 minutes into this documentary and I really can't bring myself to watch anymore.

These police are so sure of themselves and their "believe the victim" mentality it is really chilling

Theres a few on here, myself included, who have had different experiences i.e the police said, or suggested, that they didn't think the allegations were true. This is ''chilling'' also given that the officer in my case had zero evidence to suggest I was telling the truth/lying or that she was telling the truth/lying when he told me ''we don't want to waste any more of your time'' immediately after my interview.

Think for a moment if my accuser had been a genuine victim of rape she was disbelieved from the start. So yes, thses cases need to be investigated impartially.