Any information greatly appreciated

[fozzyb]

Hi, This is my first time using this website. It is myself who has been accused by my ex wife, I don't want to go into great detail but on may 2011 my ex wife made an accusation to the police about myself sexually assaulting my son (we have two boys) since this has happened I was interviewed horrifically by the police, I spent the full weekend in the cells (for my 1st time) as it was on a Friday, I attend college (Nursing) and from this I will not be attending university as planned and I can not work in the care field due to this being on my PVG. I am attending court next month to try to get access to my kids as I have not seen them since May 2011. I have had no support at all from Police, Social Work or any apparent Care Providers, it seems that they made up their minds from the start.

I was hoping that someone on this site can give me advice as to what to expect at court and is there a time limit the Police can "investigate" this matter? I was charged on the Friday, but released on the Monday with no charge or bail or anything like that. I want to see my children again greatly and I also want to clear my name.

[Faith]

Do you mean that you were arrested on the Friday?
As you say you were released with no charge or bail.

It would be unusual for them to have charged you straight away (although not impossible)

I'll hold off giving any further advice if you could just clarify that.
Welcome to the forum by the way

[lawlessone2009]

PVG... It sounds like Scotland.

If you've not been charged then why is it on your PVG?

Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007 is a terrible and completely unnecessary piece of Scottish government nonsense. Disclosure and Enhanced Disclosure were good enough.

Do you have a court date to appear in relation to the sexual assault or is the appearance a family matter to get access?

Did your son backup your ex-wifes allegation?

Pretty wicked to ruin your entire life like that and especially when there is a chance that as a qualified nurse you would earn decent money which would no doubt be of benefit to your kids.

[Faith]

Just noticed on the other thread that the poster is from Scotland.

[lawlessone2009]

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2007/14/section/2

The referral ground—

(a)in relation to an individual who is or has been doing (or has been offered or supplied for) regulated work with children, is that the individual has, whether or not in the course of the individual's work—

(i)harmed a child,
(ii)placed a child at risk of harm,
(iii)engaged in inappropriate conduct involving pornography,
(iv)engaged in inappropriate conduct of a sexual nature involving a child, or
(v)given inappropriate medical treatment to a child,

Having read the page that follows I can clearly see what's happened... Sentenced when not even proven guilty. Sick. Basically anyone can go on the 'list' and have their lives completely screwed! No court no hearing no justice...

My case for a mass strike within health and welfare sectors is gathering strength. I'll need to compile an article for my blog.

[Izzy]

Hi Fozzyb,

Apparently in Scotland they don't necessarily tell you if the case has been dropped.
As it didn't go through court then normal time limits for bringing the case to court don't apply.
If I was you I would see a Solicitor and get him to write to the PF and get an update of what is happening, he should be able to advise you on the PVG too.

I'm not sure what to expect at court for access to your children, have you had any legal advise so far?

[fozzyb]

Hi everyone, in answer to the questions above well this is where I am very confused, Faith on the Friday night I was charged with this accusation then on the Monday early afternoon I was released without charge, however after meeting with my solicitor he advised me that all charges were dropped but the police were still investigating the matter and does not have a clue as to how long this will go on for before I know what the outcome is, which is why I was hoping that anyone on here could advise me.
Lawlessone2009 the court date I am appearing at is solely to get access to my children, and of course my ex wife defense is that I done this to my son which is of course being taken very seriously, an no my son has not backed her up as the police say he is too young to understand these allegations. And yes it is the worst thing she could do to me, and funnily enough 1 week before this allegation I told her I had been accepted into university I was moving on in life, I can honestly say I would wish this on nobody.
Izzy, Yeah I have legal advice however they make it as clear as mud as to any updates when it comes to the PF, as far as I have been told I will have to wait until the court dates are over with before I can get any answers to this, and as to my PVG I appealed against the decision when it was made back in July however I have had no reply as to what my outcome is.
Thanks to everybody for their advice so far, it is greatly appreciated.

[Faith]

Thanks for answering those questions.
Lawlessone and Izzy will be in a better place to advise you; I'm not au fait with the Scottish system.

But you are in my thoughts, good luck

[fozzyb]

Thanks very much for that Izzy, hope I can get some advice here because so far I suppose I thought it wasn't happening to me, it's never really sank in but know I need to do some searching myself, thanks again.

[lawlessone2009]

You could be 'far out' and raise a private proceeding against the PF and Police for unnecessarily affecting your human rights indirectly by basically preventing you from working through not acting in the publics interest and in a timely manner...

It is a pretty 'far out' proposal but not outwith the realms of possibility.

No charges, nothing... No action... No indication of action... Yet you're still basically being treated as guilty! Bloody hell...

As mentioned, a solicitor should be able to write to the PF and extract some info/closure.

Once the matter is cleared up I really don't see any issue why it should remain on the PVG. I am still reading about the PVG to be honest though so it would be best advised to consult with a solicitor on whether the allegation remains or not.

It is my understanding that with the enhanced disclosure any firm you apply to work with that requires it will receive the enhanced disclosure (on record) and possibly the views of anyone else (Police etc) highlighting anything they feel the potential employer should be aware off (off record). PVG seems to take this further, sentence without trial and just about anyone can directly screw your life!

[fozzyb]

First I want to say thanks for that, I will be contacting my solicitor today to get her to contact the PF and find out whats what, and wow so even if I do get it off my PVG it can still be done off record, excuse the language but that's an almighty kick in the balls, my college and was to be university principle know whats going on and I have been told I have no chance of a place at uni in September with this on my PVG, so yeah basically my life is ruined! I can honestly say I feel totally helpless at this point, and I cant see what I can do. Saying that though I am full of fight and will keep fighting until I get things sorted, because at the end of the day I have done nothing wrong and I wall always be full of fight for my kids.

[lawlessone2009]

It's only what I picked up on.

What I cannot understand is why any individual in this country cannot simply put a request in for ALL information held by the state and receive ALL information held by the state...

It'd save all this sneaking around behind peoples backs sh1t...

Even though it could be removed from your record would you really want to sacrifice your life to nursing knowing that literally anyone can end it at any time in the future for any reason that they wish? It's just now that you've experienced how easily your life can come to a stop I'd have thought you'd have wanted to put in place controls to make sure it doesn't happen again and one of them would be having a job that does not involve participation in the PVG or similar.

[numbtothecore]

Pvg

Hi Fozzyb

I am so sorry that this has happened to you. I swear as a woman I am disgusted at the depths some members of my sex will stoop to.
As for PVG, its a tough one. A sexual assault charge is what is known as a notifiable offence, the Police have to inform your employer of the charge. My son works in the NHS and is now not allowed to work. It is up to the employer what they do with this information. I am the Chief Officer of a charity working with vulnerable older people, and to be honest? I would do the same. You and my son are both innocent, but your employer has no way of knowing this, until you are cleared by the courts. If you were found guilty and it came out that the NHS had allowed you to work with vulnerable people, there would be a riot, this was what PVG was set up for, No its not perfect, far from it, but its the only method we have to ensure we are taking precautions to protect vulnerable people. It sucks, my son feels as though he is guilty until proven innocent too. Please don't give up, I am not discouraging my boy to pursue his career because of this. He has an interview for college tomorrow, and he's going. If he gets a place, and the PVG check happens before this is over, we'll cross that bridge then. Put yourself on the other side, and think, what if you had been working on a ward with a guy, and then you found out he was convicted of a serious sexual assault and your employer hadn't removed them after being told of the charge a few months before, wouldn't you be angry? Its not personal it's a precaution. It took years to get disclosure to where it is now, andit still has a long way to go.
Hang in there, I've only been on here a couple of days, the advice and support is fabulous.

Sx

[lawlessone2009]

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.p...article/12131/

Things ARE kind of making it towards the mainstream press (spiked isn't quite mainstream!). People are discussing these things on an ever increasing scale. The tighter the controls, the more that are affected and the more than begin to speak out.

Rape victims, rape accusers and rape accused are quite a minority group so getting a 'voice' is quite difficult.

[fozzyb]

Thanks again everyone, I have had thoughts that it would be better that I did not maintain my pursuit of getting a job in the care field but I know that I cant and wont give up on my dreams and ambitions because of this, I am stronger than that and as I know I have done nothing wrong I have to hold on to the idea that the truth (whatever it may be) will come out one day, I believe in karma and I am in a positive frame of mind. I know it will be hard but I will never stop fighting. I wish your son all the best in the future and tell him to keep his chin up, keep fighting because the truth will come out for him as well and it will make him a stronger person.