My son

[worriedfather]

i would like some advice if anyone can help me please.
My teenage son was arrested late last year and accused of rape by a girl that he had been seeing on and off for about a year. She spent the night with him and my son says that they had sex and it was consensual as she started it. In the morning they had an arguement and she called his disabled brother a name and he slapped her, he was distraught and took an overdose some time later.
the girl went to the police and accused him of rape, my son was arrested and taken to the hospital where he remained for some hours. He was then taken to the police station and once seen by a doctor, interviewed.
the girl denied that my son used a condom, my son said he did. The police turned up whilst he was in hospital and before he had been interviewed. They took photos but did not search. My son told the police that he had used a condom and where it was, this was ignored. I recovered the condom the following day and it was handed to the police via the sol.
My son was charged the following day and remanded for 2 weeks, he was released by the judge and we are now waiting to go to trial. This has been put back as it has come out that she had made a previous allegation that was then dropped when she changed her mind about who assaulted her.
The condom came back positive for her dna, although the police did not send off for testing as they did not feel that they needed to!
the tial has been put back as we only discovered that she had made an allegtion before a short time ago, should this have been disclosed prior ? my son has been on bail for 6 months and it looks like it will be 3 months or more before we go to trial.
Please understand, i will fight back if you can give me a few pointers

[Saffron]

Hi Worried Father and welcome. I'm sorry you find yourself here.

My first thoughts are that the police are grossly negligent for not even attempting to retrieve the condom. Your son told them that it had been used and told them where to find it, but they failed to even look for it. Disgusting. The accuser has already been proven to have lied - she claimed he didn't use a condom, but patently he did. They had been in an on-off relationship for a while....what are the timelines - could the CPS claim that the condom was an old one that had been used prior to the alleged rape? Just thinking aloud here.

I am assuming that your son was remanded because of his suicide attempt? The courts would have thought that being remanded was the only way of keeping him "safe"....(how little they know). It is unusual to be charged so quickly after an allegation. Have you got good legal representation? You need a solicitor who specialises in defending false allegations of sex crimes. A standard criminal sol, or heavens forbid, the duty sol will not do.

What do you think this girl's motives could be for making a false allegation? This is very important if the case is going to trial. The fact that she has made a similar allegation previously is also very important. Do you have the details of this case? If you do, are they from a reliable source, and have you passed them to your solicitor?

I feel for you, I really do. I hope you get the result you want.

Saffron

[worriedfather]

Hi Saffron
Thanks for the advice, my son was charged very quickly i agree, cant help thinking that if they had waited for the results it would have been dropped.
The CPS disclosed this after my sons sol discovered, gen crim sol but very good and my son likes him as well.
i am a fighter, i have put a number of complaints in regarding their "investigation" and will keep digging, when this is over i want their jobs

[Saffron]

Yes, very unusual to be charged so quickly. Was/is the girl a minor? Did she have any injuries/bruising/tears consistent with a penetrative assault? I can't think of any other reasons why your son would be charged so quickly.

Please don't think I am casting aspersions on your son's case - everyone here is taken at face value, and people (or the families of people)protesting their innocence are accepted as such.

Keep on digging! You never know what you might uncover. Good luck.

[worriedfather]

she had some bruising on her neck which she claimed was where my son strangled her, she also had a bite on her arm which she alleged was by my son. the bite has come back as not human, the photos that the cps supplied were black and white photocopies, the colour ones that the sol got are with a proffesor that specialises in forensics to see if my son could have done it. My son admits that he het her as she called her disabled brother a spas, he has helped look after him for the last 10 years and loves him to bits. My disabled son has a lot of challenging behaviur issues and will bit and scratch when angry with you, in ten years i never saw my son ever strike back at his brother even when he was obviously hurt

[goldfish]

My husband was also charged very quickly with no medical evidence to support a forced rape. Have you looked at the transcript and video of your sons police interview? we found the police pursued only the lines of questioning that could back up what the woman was claiming. My husband found the whole thing taumatic and confusing and any hint of self doubt on his part they interpreted as a form of guilt. Like your sons case investigations into my husbands version of events were not done until after the charge and anything that backed him up was conveniently left out or not followed through. Make sure your solicitor can involve as many experts as possible to look at all the evidence against your son.

[worriedfather]

The police were told by my son exactly where the condom was that he used, the police did not bother to go and get it. The collected no forensics from the room except what his mum offered them... hows that for a thorough investigation? i searched his room the following day and found the condom within 30 seconds. the police came round before he was interviewed and took a few photos and left after 15 mins.

[worriedfather]

how did your husband get on ? i have the impression that it is all a bit hit and miss whether the police bother to investigate properly.

[goldfish]

we were told that police are no longer impartial and they are completely focused on obtaining eveidence to back up the accusers claims. Is this to help with police and crime statistics? I don't know, but it seems completely unfair and unjust.

My husband was charged like your son over 6 months ago, have heard nothing official apart from the basis of the prosection statements and a written transcription of his police interview. we are still waiting for things to come back from the police. So I feel we are in limbo, everything goes very slow. The lawyers are saying the right things, getting the right people involved but they are constantly having to obtain permission to get done what is needed which has and still is a very slow process. we don't know when there will be a preliminary hearing or even if it will go to trial.

I feel for your son as we have a son in his twenties as well as younger ones and have thought how devastating this must be for someone starting out on their lives. I have to say we also have daughters. been the victim of a sexual assault myself when younger and have a relative who was the victim of a true rape, so know about the worries, concerns and the effects this kind of crime can have from all angles.

My husband is very depressed and has thrown himself into his work, I on the other hand like yourself am continually looking for information and ideas on trying to understand how I can help him either from a practical way or emotional. This forum has helped in alot of ways. In the end though it is all in the hands of lawyers who we hope can do their jobs well. like what has been said in other threads pass on as much information as possible to your lawyer and question everything they do.

[Rights Fighter]

Worried father said:
...gen crim sol but very good and my son likes him as well.

I cannot stress enough that your lad needs a solicitor who is experienced in defending false allegations of sexual offences. Liking his solicitor is not going to help at trial.

I do hope he knows what he is doing. Defending sex cases is completely different to defending any other offence.

[worriedfather]

i can understand the depression, i have been to some very dark places, it is very depressing at times. I would not got through this so far but for my partner who has been a rock.
i have spent my time reading up and ripping the statements to pieces, i found nine pages of inconsistencies which helps i think as it occupies my mind.

[worriedfather]

i have spoken to the sol, surprise surprise the police did not mention the fact that she had made a false accusation previously. all they seemed to be interested in was charging my son. i think 33 hours from arrest to charge must be some kind of record.
The police seemed to ignore anything that might be useful to the defence to the extent that i had recovered the condom that he has said he used.
it worries me that they are so blatantly biased towards the accuser. I have put numerous complaints in and am very angry towards the police and the cps.
They have a job to do and should do it properly, it does not seem to matter to them that their actions could ruin a young mans life forever.
the police interview with my son has losts of "further conversation" which apperently is stuff that they dont want us to know.
i am appalled that they are so blatantly dishonest to the extent that last tiime we were in court we were told that they plan to use astatement that they know is untrue, think thasts illegal !

[Rights Fighter]

the police interview with my son has losts of "further conversation" which apperently is stuff that they dont want us to know.

Request the sols obtain a FULL TRANSCRIPT of this edited/index version of the interview. The sols can have this transcribed independently.

[worriedfather]

Ok I have asked for a full transcript to see what the further converstaions any other good ideas, i suspect that the police thought that we would not put up much of a fight as they are the police.
I feel so angry that they did not bother to do their job properly just looked for evidence that would support their case. are we likely to get an apology after all this...... i doubt it !

[Rights Fighter]

Unfortunately I can't come up with many good ideas as I don't know much about the case and you cannot post much of it up here as this is a public forum and the police involved in your case could be reading this.