Feeling desperate

[Magichat46]

Hi everybody, I've finally had the courage to post on here.

I was accused of Abuse of Trust offence against a 16 year old girl 17 months ago. I was arrested in June 2010 and questioned. My solicitor advised that I provide a prepared statement and then give a no comment interview.

I was then continuously rebailed up until the end of October 2011. At that interview my solicitor told me that he had been given the impression that the OIC wanted the case to 'go away'. Consequently, he advised another no comment interview. On that date I was told that the case file was being sent to the cps, and that he anticipated that no charges would be forthcoming.

At the beginning of December the cps wrote to my solicitor to ask for permission to open the original tape recording of my interview, as they said the working copy had been destroyed due to 'the length of time that had passed'. This permission was granted. My solicitor told me that he could not understand the request as it had been a no comment interview and so could provide no assistance to the cps.

Since then I have heard nothing. I am due to re-attend the police station on January 19th. After 17 months of waiting I am feeling absolutely desperate to the point where I feel I can't eat or sleep. Is this delay normal? Surely after 17 months they must know if they have enough evidence to charge me or not?

I'm sorry if I've rambled on but as I said above I'm feeling really low at the moment and the waiting is making everything so much worse.

[Casehardened]

Hello and welcome to the forum,

Long bail periods seem to be the norm rather than the exception but 17 months is unusual. Unfortunately there is presently no limit to the length of time that you can be bailed though I would suggest that if you were to be charged after say, two years, it may be possible for your solicitor to get the case dismissed for abuse of process.

In this instance it does seem that the CPS are simply inefficient or behind in their workload; you could take comfort in that they obviously don't class your case as serious.

You mentioned you are accused of Abuse of Trust; depending on your position you may also find the following site useful: http://www.factuk.org/

[fighter]

Hi Magicchat46, welcome to the forum and sorry to hear your story.
Hoping for you to have this allegation be dropped when you come on bail on the 19th.

It is sad to hear you have to be on bail for 17 months; unusually long indeed. My partner was charged after 10 months of bail. It is quite inefficient for them to lose the working copy. For our case, the transcription of the interview as well as the tape recording took so long to be given to our solicitor. Then when it came, the barrister at the court hearing even asked for a more accurate transcription of the interview of my partner. tsk tsk! I guess these things do happen.

Hang in there! do update us what happens on the 19th.

[billykickass]

Good luck for the 19th its not that long away hopefully you will have it all dropped and it will just be a bad memory for you.

[RFLH]

I'm sorry that you have found your way here. I hope all goes well for the 19th, keep posting - it does help.

[lawlessone2009]

Has this actually affected your work? Has the allegation resulted in you being suspended from your position?

Don't give too detailed a description of what you do but if the 'abuse of trust' was within your working role and has resulted in your suspension from that role then could you indicate this on here?

It'd help with trying to understand why it's taken so long for anything to happen.