Advice required regarding appeal

[SoUnfair]

It's so good to hear a Not Guilty verdict, well done! We have been going through this hell for a few years now and are back to square one. My son was convicted and has spent time in prison, which was heartbreaking. We aren't wealthy, but all pulled together to pay for a barrister and other help, but they did very little. Then fell into the trap of going with falsely.accused, all the comments on this forum proved to be right, although I gave him the benefit of the doubt. So now we are back to square one, don't know where to go for proper advice on appealing, battling with ''the rat'' who has our money and it just seems to get worse and snowballs onto something else. It seems we need ''fresh evidence'' but how can we get that when we don't know where to start? A liar was believed and evidence was not put to the jury correctly, but here we are a few years later on, my son's life turned upside down, trying to get it straight, trying to fight all the battles and not knowing where to turn to next. Has anyone got any advice about sorting an appeal and also any ideas about ''fresh evidence''?

[Casehardened]

Hi and welcome to the forum,

I have moved your post to it's own thread as it is more likely to be noticed by members and therefore for you to receive responses.

[can it get worse]

So sorry to see you are yet another victim of falselyaccused.co.uk My heart sinks whenever I hear of another one.....

And mine....we have met him.

I hate to read of another experience at the hands of an FA. I hope things become clearer for you soon and you can make steps forward in the appeal work and it's success.

[SoUnfair]

Thank you for your responses. Sorry, i haven't been able to access internet lately. The conviction was January 2012. All we hear is that we need fresh evidence, although it is clear our evidence was not put to the jury correctly. The complainant was allowed to waffle on and hardly stuck to facts and the solicitor, barrister, court officer and others who have looked at papers said she was very odd and her evidence was very odd. But still my son, who wouldn't hurt anybody, went to prison. My heart sinks when I hear these stories too and there are so many of them. He found that out when he was in custody. It is really shocking that more isn't done and for people to be so narrow minded that they always believe the complainant, even when it's flimsy evidence or obvious she is lying. It also weakens the true crime and stops genuine victims coming forward. Because legal aid proved to be such a farce we paid privately for an Advice and hired an enquiry agent, but they are just after the money, now the latest one ''the rat'' who has put us in a worse position than before and still we have got nowhere! What else is there then if we don't necessarily need fresh evidence?

[SoUnfair]

Sorry, I've just seen you both actually said ''sorry to see we are another victim of F/A'' didn't read it properly! Yes, we are and, because I read this forum, I asked what I thought were all the right questions and it wasn't until I felt I had covered everything that I instructed him. He is an absolute joke. But I haven't given up yet .... watch this space!

[Rights Fighter]

Thank you for your responses. Sorry, i haven't been able to access internet lately. The conviction was January 2012. All we hear is that we need fresh evidence, although it is clear our evidence was not put to the jury correctly. The complainant was allowed to waffle on and hardly stuck to facts and the solicitor, barrister, court officer and others who have looked at papers said she was very odd and her evidence was very odd. But still my son, who wouldn't hurt anybody, went to prison. My heart sinks when I hear these stories too and there are so many of them. He found that out when he was in custody. It is really shocking that more isn't done and for people to be so narrow minded that they always believe the complainant, even when it's flimsy evidence or obvious she is lying. It also weakens the true crime and stops genuine victims coming forward. Because legal aid proved to be such a farce we paid privately for an Advice and hired an enquiry agent, but they are just after the money, now the latest one ''the rat'' who has put us in a worse position than before and still we have got nowhere! What else is there then if we don't necessarily need fresh evidence?

Sometimes the judge will fail to direct the jury on a certain matter, or misdirects the jury - that can be grounds for appeal. I've got three on the go at the moment relating to missed and mis-directions. If you can afford to get the JSU (Judge's Summing Up) that might assist, also Crown and defence opening and closing speeches.

If you can't afford to do that choose an appeal solicitor wisely and they may be able to get those documents on legal aid if there is a good argument to obtain them.

[SoUnfair]

Thanks Rights Fighter. We did actually obtain the Judge's Summing up on legal aid and paid for transcript. The problem is, we are being told there are no mis-directions there, but my son wanted to physically produce evidence and it was overlooked, so the Judge never knew about that and the trial team didn't make much of it. The whole case was just handled so badly, but I don't believe there is anything in the summing up the Judge could be criticised for. My son felt he was 'for him' a bit and gave him the minimum sentence, but as the jury found him guilty, he had to sentence him. It would be so much easier if I could PM you, but I am a new member and can't yet

[SoUnfair]

I believe the enquiry agent was Mike Armstrong, I can't access his details at present. He was useless too. He only gave us a shoddy 'report' at the end, after we had spent £2,000 and decided to go with the rat. I believe the report was just produced to keep us quiet. He couldn't have carried out work he said he had, we had proof of that. But I don't waste time thinking about him now, this latest one has taken over, so much more money! My family all rallied round to raise that and all for nothing. We also paid £1800 for an Advice by a direct access barrister and he said he needed documentation, so I felt he was really going to get on with it properly, but although he didn't obtain the documentation, he produced an Advice which was little more than a regurgitation of the CPS opening speech, most of which had been disproved and was useless. We found out afterwards he used to work as for the CPS and was not experienced in what we needed. His name is Chris Kessling, so avoid him, very friendly and then his whole attitude changed. So we really haven't had much luck in finding genuine people. Sad thing is, I worked in law all my working life and never worked for lawyers who carried on like this and I hopefully did a good job, but can't get the same myself!

[Rights Fighter]

You can't have got the JSU on legal aid and then paid for it privately hon. That means that somehow it had been paid for twice.

Who has told you that there are no mis- or missed directions? The ones I have recently worked on were told the same thing. Clearly in those cases the barrister/sols had no idea what to look for.

It is very unusual for the CA to allow evidence at appeal that is not 'fresh'. That's not to say they won't - they did in one of mine, but it really is very unusual.

[SoUnfair]

Sorry, it's because I'm trying to put it in a netshell and not making it clear - Chris Saltrese solicitors got the summing up on legal aid and said we needed fresh evidence, he gave us a pointer and that's why we instructed the enquiry agent Mike Armstrong. That came to nothing. So I went with the rat and he obtained the trial transcript, he tried to charge us VAT on it twice, but we spotted his 'mistake' and also for the summing up again, but we said we already had it. Then when we saw the barrister the rat had introduced us to and she took 10 months to even see my son, she just ended up shouting at us that ''we had it there ... fresh evidence'' and pointed to Chris Saltrese's Advice!! Do you take cases on then? I've noticed you speak about them, but always wondered how we get onto you. I don't like to say too much here and now, it seems I have become a full member so can private message.

[Rights Fighter]

An Advice on Appeal properly written will include the case for the prosecution, hence your thought it read more like the Crown opening speech.

[SoUnfair]

Thank you, I will do that. I do appreciate just all you have said today, thanks very much and to the others who have responded to my post, really grateful.

[Rights Fighter]

If you can contact me on Facebook maybe we can "chat" about how I can help. I've actually got room for another case as one is ready to go to a barrister and the other I am waiting for the JSU so that will be about 6 weeks before I can do any more work on it.

[SoUnfair]

I'm not sure I've joined FB correctly, I haven't received a PM from you asking for more info, think I got confused!

[Rights Fighter]

We are now talking on FB via PM hon. I think you have tried to join the PAFAA forums too. I have PMd you from there. Check your junk/spam filters