Does the accuser get out of this without any punishment after being found lying?

[fighter]

The meeting with the barrister left me wondering about what he said; that we cant do anything (to sue) the accuser; that the accuser can get away with the false allegation.This was a shock to us because the solicitor said we can talk about it once we finished with our case. What if the accuser was found lying in court, does the judge sentence her immediately along with the verdict of not guilty? does one need to do something else for the accuser to be also persecuted for putting us through this stress? We want the accuser to learn her lessons as she and her sister has history of false allegations over the years, and they seem to get away with it over and over.

[Casehardened]

We want the accuser to learn her lessons as she and her sister has history of false allegations over the years, and they seem to get away with it over and over.

If these allegations were actually made to the police and resulted in a NFA or went to trial and resulted in a not guilty verdict then I am sure your barrister will be allowed to tell the jury about them (though I believe he will have to apply to the judge to do this) and it will obviously help your case.

Sadly, if the allegations didn't result in a police investigation they probably won't be admissible, I know this that seems very unfair.

If the accuser is proven to have been lying in court about the allegation (as opposed to just having made a 'mistake') then the CPS may decide to prosecute them at a later date for 'perverting the course of justice'

...note the italics.........usually only happens if they've done this several times.

[fighter]

Thanks Casehardened. It is comforting to know that if the barrister know how it should be done the accuser could not just go freely without experiencing the consequences of her actions. Apparently our barrister thinks we could not do anything about it. He could have just explained the process instead of saying "no".
My partner has been charged and due to court next month. The barrister seems to ignore that the accuser has history of allegations when she was younger, and then in 2008 she reported again to the police that she has been raped. We still do not know what really happened to that case. But all the barrister said to us, the consequence of her action is that police wont believe her easily.. right! so 2 years after my partner gets charged. The barrister attitude towards the case has signaled to us that he may be experienced as the solicitor told us but not for this kind of case.

Thanks a lot case hardened. I believe what I read more here than what the solicitors and barristers are saying who apparently are on a different page from us. We are just one of their cases and whatever the outcome, they get paid.

[gem]

why are they completely ignoring the fact she is a serial accuser, hope if it goes to court that the judge and jury are made aware of her past allegations ..

[Casehardened]

The barrister seems to ignore that the accuser has history of allegations when she was younger, and then in 2008 she reported again to the police that she has been raped. We still do not know what really happened to that case.

It is quite important to find out the result of this; i.e. if the CPS didn't prosecute anyone for this allegation then this would imply insufficient evidence to back up the allegation which should make the jury think carefully about the 'evidence' in your partner's case.

It is usually the solicitors job to look up previous relevant cases, the barrister would decide if they were helpful to the defence and apply to the judge to be able to tell the jury about them.

Is the solicitor onside? you don't want to wind him up so he stops trying his best for you but he really should look this previous allegation up. Perhaps you could write your concerns down on paper and send him a letter, this would be more difficult to ignore!

[ID123]

Hi
My partner has just been found guilty on the second trial. The accuser has claimed she has been raped twice before (and kidnapped once). One of these times it went to court and the man was found guilty, the second accusation didnt go to court.
In our first trial (the hung jury) her previous accusations were not mentioned but in our second trial one of the rapes was mentioned (and that she got £11,000compensation) and the kidnap.
It was actually brought up by the prosecution barrister and they tried to use it against my partner in that as he knew about her past he should know she was vunerable.
So think carefully about whether you want the jury to know. I do however think it is a good thing for the jury to know, as im sure most people would think that kind of thing doesnt repeatedly happen to people.
Your barrister will have to have agreement from the judge to be able to bring it up.

[fighter]

Thanks for your advise gem, ID123 and casehardened.

The good thing is we have a good solicitor although he had only one case similar to us and he lost in that case! But he has done a lot of leg work already (getting statements from all our character references, finding out about the 2008 allegation); he is also always available when we have concerns. However, the barrister is another thing, maybe we are wrong, maybe the barrister is really thinking if that some statements can be bad for us. But our gut feelings are telling us the barrister wont fight well enough for us. We have one issue that it took time for him to decide whether to bring it up on court. When my partner tried to tell him the context of the story (about the family) he seems not interested to listen. As young kids, the girl and her sister and cousins, have done false allegations of this type on several men and dropping them off before it goes to court. As a stepfather then, he has dealt with the people who supposedly done the assault on this accuser, and he ended up being embarrassed and causing bad relationship with neighbors because the girls would then admit later on that they did not do it. That is so sad.

anyway, it is a good advise to write down concerns. We called Chris Saltrese last friday and we are going to call again tomorrow. I hope the outcome would be good.

[Casehardened]

My apologies fighter, I didn't realise that your partner's accuser was his ex's daughter/his stepdaughter.

Was the accusation made after he left his ex? If so, in these circumstances, I wonder if it would be better to try to show that the motive for the accusation was anger and revenge because of the split with her mother.

Relationship difficulties do affect the children involved and if she does indeed have a history of making false accusations she wouldn't think twice about using this weapon again.

[fighter]

Casehardened, no problem. I havent told the forum yet of the whole story of our case. It is a very long one.

My partner left the house where he lived with the ex-partner in 2008; but the accuser left the house and went to her biological father at the age of 14 and he has not seen her since then; she is now 23 years old. She accused him of abusing her from 1994 to 2000.

The statements gathered by the police were conflicting.
(1)The mother and sister of the accuser said they didn't know it happened and said they will not appear in court.
(2)the husband of the accuser said he was told by the accuser in 2007 that she was abused by my ex-partner but yet they did not go to the police that time. Then the accuser said later on to him (in 2008), she was only touched outside of her clothes.
(3)Last year, the accuser supposedly told the biological father, sister and stepmother, that my ex partner raped her but it took her a week to go to the police.
(4) When she talked to the police, out of a police station, she said she was raped 10 years ago by a person she is seeing then. When she went to the police station the next day, she now has the story about my partner raping her.

On the day, my partner was arrested the duty solicitor told him it has something to do with benefits compensation. According to the solicitor, in 2008, when the girl's benefits was supposed to be stopped, a social worker had "advised" her of the possibility of compensation of being a rape victim. I dont know where the duty solicitor get this. But of course we have no evidence of this because it was just told to him. Hence, that solicitor just assured us to let it die its death and we took his word for four months.

We guess her motive is compensation. He had a very good relationship with the daughters of my expartner until the biological father came back in their lives.

Sorry casehardened, this is long!

[Casehardened]

Yes, complicated story, but familial cases often are.

I would say that as an independent observer reading those facts there is no way that as a jury member I could vote for a guilty verdict, as you mentioned, there is far too much confliction in the various statements.

However as you are well aware a lot of juries are swayed by emotion on the day depending on the performance of the witnesses, barristers, and judge.

The witnesses and the judge (and for that matter the jury) you can't do much about (though get your partner to read up the various stickies on the forum relating to giving evidence in court) but you can choose your barrister.

I have no idea if your barrister is ok for the case or not, but it is vital that you have confidence in him. If you feel he done his best for your partner you will know you couldn't have done any more, on the other hand, taking the very worst scenario, you will be plagued with if-onlys and what-ifs for ages.

[fighter]

Casehardened, it is so nice to hear those words. I hope the 12 juries would think the same. We were quite confident with it, but upon meeting the barrister first time this week, we realized we are not confident in him. I saw it as a positive turn of event, I told my partner, maybe it is good we met him and then we are given a chance still to get a specialist who would have deeper understanding of this kind of situation.

I am very happy to have come across the forum! It gave us the encouragement to call our solicitor and tell him of change in barrister. The solicitor is good to us and we do trust him before; but we cannot just picture ourselves working with the barrister.

You made me feel better tonight! thanks a lot.. and do have a nice evening!