Can anyone help? Advice needed

[strongforhubby]

Hi there,

I'm hoping someone can give me some helpful advice.

My husband was convicted of rape in 2004 and was sentenced to 5 and a half years in prison, he served his sentence and was relased in 2008.

My husband pleaded Not Guilty and still maintains his innocence, he didn't commit this awful crime but was found guilty by a jury

It basically came down to her word against his, there was no evidence as she waited a year to report it to the police. Although she got her friends to give statements too, we strongly believe she was in it for the money.

My husband was told by his solicitor (awful legal aid duty solicitor) that was no chance of an appeal unless there was new evidence, which there isn't
Basically, we'd like to know where we can go from here, I met my husband when he was released from prison and we have since had a beautiful daughter. My husband has ot to the point where he feels like he can't fight for his innocence any more as he can't be let down again by our so called "Justice System" but I need to try and do something for him and my daughter!

Is there anything we can do?

[myhome]

Hi and welcome to the forum - you r hubby is a lucky man to have you standing by him...I can understand why he wants to fight to prove his innocence. I guess he could take out a defamation of character case or similar - advice from a specialist solicitor/barrister would be a good place to start.
many people who have been FA'd want to seek redress, but so often the advice is to try to let it go - it costs thousands and can take years; there is no guarantee you would win the case and which ever way it went, that's years more of your lives spent living this awful thing every day.
He has a new life now with you and your child and I wonder if, for the sake of your and his mental health and emotional well-being, whether you might prefer to consider leaving it behind and concentrate on your lovely future together. You could consult professionals to help you to put this behind you and move forward. "You cannot change your past, but you can learn to live with it.."

other people should be along shortly with other suggestions to..
Whatever you choose to do, I hope you have a long and happy life together as a new family....

[Casehardened]

There are perhaps two issues in his mind; anger at the false accusation and anger at the system for returning a guilty vedict.

As Myhome rightly says, to seek retribution against the accuser is very difficult and costly unless she openly admits she had lied.

It is unfortunate that he had no confidence in his solicitor as it must have made the conviction much more galling but I fear he was right regarding the appeal: an application for leave to appeal must first be made and this is unlikely to be granted unless fresh evidence which was not available at the time of trial has come to light (of course with the time that has elapsed this may now be the case!) or unless there was an error in procedure during the trial (i.e. a misdirection from the judge during his summing up)

Of course an appeal is well out of time by now, the sentence has been spent, however there are good reasons, both financial and emotional, for overturning the verdict.

Rights Fighter is our acknowledged expert on appeals and she may be able to comment when she next logs on the forum, but all in all I think MyHome has offered very sage advice to you regarding moving on.

[strongforhubby]

Hi myhome and casehardened,

Thank you both for your replies and advice.

I was desperately hoping that there may have been another option that we hadn't already thought of

We just haven't got the money to seek legal advise but feel as if I'm "rolling over" and giving up if we don't fight! There is no chance of her admiting she lied, as she wuldn't want to face the consequences that would come with.

It's got harder recently, I think, to just try and move on and leave it all behind. My husband has said before that it would be easier and has also mentioned it could cost thousands. But we have constant reminders, as he was placed on the sex offenders register for life, we have regular visits from the local Public Protection team and since we've had our daughter a massive involvement from Social Services.
My husband was made to leave the family home when she was born and missed out on the first 8 weeks of her life! And we have recently been told that when she's old enough to attend school they will need to be informed aswell.
Because of their involvement we have also been made to inform my family (I hadn't told them previously for fear of not being supported) and this has had a massive impact on my relationships with my family members as I do not feel, my sister in particular, believes he didn't do it. I so want to prove his innoncence just to show them! I thought that them getting to know my husband first before telling them may have helped but they feel they have been lied to!

After having read through the statements and the papers that my husband has from court it appears that his solicitor didn't work on a very good defence for him, my husband was told to "No Comment" throughout his initial interview and even when my husband mentioned names of possible witnesses or statements that could of been used they weren't even contacted.
There is also inconsistancies in the accusers statements and several others, it makes me angry that these were not picked up on!

Thank you both

[frightened spouse]

Hi

Maybe you could give your sister a link to this forum. Prior to my own husband's fa earlier this year I had no concept of the fact false allegations are made on a more frequent basis than will ever be publicised due to political pressure.

I thought that police were interested in the truth not hitting targets, I believed without question that if someone was charged "oh well the police must have someting solid" which I now know from my own case and many others to be absolute ****. As for the idea that innocent people being convicted, that was something that never even occurred to me. No one wants to automatically believe that many fa's exist, as it is a terrifying concept and means that anyone is potentially at risk of being labelled a sex offender. The idea that our judicial system does little to root such false claims is more than horrific.

The last twelve months of non stop media coverage of high profile arrests and charges has probably made it even harder to get a fair hearing from people that have little or no knowledge of the subject.

Best wishes
FS

[strongforhubby]

Hi frightened spouse,

You're right, until I met my husband the thought of innocent people being sent to prison didn't even cross my mind.

Unfortunately, my sister is very stubborn so I am unsure if it will help. It is something I will think about though.

Thank you

[Rights Fighter]

One can appeal convictions without fresh evidence, for instance if an abuse of process occurred, such as, if something happened within the investigation that rendered the trial unfair. Also if the judge misdirected / failed to direct the jury on a certain issue / or allowed irrelevant prejudicial evidence in (usually results in a retrial if the time has not been served).

Unfortunately rather a lot of time has passed and it's unlikely that CA would entertain any such application at this late stage. However...........

One case I was heavily involved with, def was convicted in 1999 and released in 2004. The jury was told that certain 'injuries' found at the medical exam were 'entirely consistent with sexual abuse'. Recent medical research has now found that those 'injuries' are actually natural variants and can no longer be considered to be signs of sexual abuse. We won in December 2010. Appeal was allowed and convictions were quashed.

We had to go via the CCRC http://www.justice.gov.uk/about/crim...iew-commission because trial tapes had been destroyed and only the CCRC could obtain the necessary hand written notes taken by the judge and both barristers at the time.

CCRC will not usually entertain an application if the case has not be before the CA (either Single Judge or full hearing). They will in 'Exceptional Circumstances' which is what we had.

So never give up. I don't know your circumstances (please don't post them on here as it's a public forum and anybody can view what is posted) so cannot advise. It may be that hubby is eligible for legal aid - while this country still has it, that is!