Wrongly convicted

[Nowhere to turn]

Hi,
Last Friday my 76 year old dad was wrongly convicted of historic sexual crimes (1970 - 1973)against a woman who was 11-13 at the time. To say my world has fallen apart is an understatement. We have been in turmoil for 16 months since receiving the first phone call from the police. The whole experience has been traumatic, especially our week in court, when the jury despite there being so many inconsistencies and NO evidence whatsoever took very little time to decide he was guilty. He was released on unconditional bail until sentencing on 24th March, when we somehow have to walk him into that courtroom and let them take him off to prison possibly to never come out again.
How can this happen? We want to appeal but the legal team don't think we have any grounds but are trying to find some.
I'm sorry for everyone else on here who is waiting for news and I hope you get a better result than we did. I still can't believe that this time last week things were looking positive and we thought our nightmare would finally be over.

[Casehardened]

Hi and welcome to the forum,

So sorry to hear this news; what a shock for you all. Will the barrister be able to submit a plea of mitigation before sentencing?

I've moved your post into this more appropriate section of the forum, we do have one member who is very knowledgeable regarding appeals.

[Rights Fighter]

What does Counsel say about the prospects of appealing the convictions? If it's a negative that does not mean that that is true. All appeals I have been involved with, the defendant was told that and we still went on to win.

Your dad is entitled to a document called an "Advice on Appeal". Make sure the barrister writes one. If it's a negative then come back and maybe we can talk via PM. If it's positive hopefully they have solid Grounds.

[Nowhere to turn]

Wrongly convicted

The solicitor has told me he will have an answer from the barrister today about whether he can find any legal grounds for appeal but he told me not to get my hopes up as he thinks the barrister would have told him immediately if he thought there was something. We have been given an NG which we intend to submit but we were hoping the solicitor would help us. Dad had legal aid for the trial so if there's no legal grounds then I think we are on our own.
Thanks for replying. Any advice greatly appreciated

[Rights Fighter]

The solicitor has told me he will have an answer from the barrister today about whether he can find any legal grounds for appeal but he told me not to get my hopes up as he thinks the barrister would have told him immediately if he thought there was something. We have been given an NG which we intend to submit but we were hoping the solicitor would help us. Dad had legal aid for the trial so if there's no legal grounds then I think we are on our own.
Thanks for replying. Any advice greatly appreciated

You said:

"We have been given an NG which we intend to submit".

Do you mean that he had a Not guilty Verdict and you intend to submit that as a Ground with which to appeal? Unless you hope to argue that the verdicts were perverse or inconsistent then that is not going to assist.

Possibly the barrister is hoping to find a Ground within the Judge's directions to the jury, misdirections or missed directions.

If the barrister cannot find anything and says that there are no Grounds, that does not necessarily make it true. Your dad should be eligible for legal aid for a fresh solicitor to review the case. The problem with that, is that due to the savage cuts to legal aid, a solicitor would only be paid to do 3 hours work, which is nowhere enough time to get a good handle on the case. However, please don't panic at this juncture.

First clarify whether trial counsel believes there are Grounds. If there are not, like I said, your dad/you/family can approach a fresh solicitor. One step at a time though.


Edit: Just realise that the NG you refer to is possibly the NG (New Grounds) form. To submit that, you have to have proper Grounds to submit using that form. If you don't have proper Grounds then that will go nowhere.

You will see from the paperwork that comes with the NG form, that Grounds have to be submitted in detail. For instance, you cannot just say "the Verdicts are wrong" without saying why. Stating that witnesses lied or a witness should have been called, but was not, will 99% of the time fail, as the Court would then say: "you should have called the witness at the time of trial so that is not fresh evidence".......

If the jury heard that a witness had lied and then went on to convict, then the court will say "the jury heard that and still went on to convict so this is not fresh evidence".

It's not quite as easy as it seems.

[Nowhere to turn]

Wrongly convicted

Yes the NG is the notice of grounds form. I have come to realise over the last few days that all the things we think should have been mentioned but weren't are not classed as new evidence as far as the law is concerned. He was found not guilty of one indictment and guilty of 5.
I will find out if trial counsel believes there are grounds, the judge certainly seemed to be guiding them towards a not guilty as it was literally her word against his.
I'm trying not to panic but we only have 28 days to get leave to appeal, we don't know if that will affect sentencing, the judge seems to be fair and will take passage of time and dads good character into account but at the end of the day the last one they decided on was buggery which carries a life sentence.

You said:

"We have been given an NG which we intend to submit".

Do you mean that he had a Not guilty Verdict and you intend to submit that as a Ground with which to appeal? Unless you hope to argue that the verdicts were perverse or inconsistent then that is not going to assist.

Possibly the barrister is hoping to find a Ground within the Judge's directions to the jury, misdirections or missed directions.

If the barrister cannot find anything and says that there are no Grounds, that does not necessarily make it true. Your dad should be eligible for legal aid for a fresh solicitor to review the case. The problem with that, is that due to the savage cuts to legal aid, a solicitor would only be paid to do 3 hours work, which is nowhere enough time to get a good handle on the case. However, please don't panic at this juncture.

First clarify whether trial counsel believes there are Grounds. If there are not, like I said, your dad/you/family can approach a fresh solicitor. One step at a time though.


Edit: Just realise that the NG you refer to is possibly the NG (New Grounds) form. To submit that, you have to have proper Grounds to submit using that form. If you don't have proper Grounds then that will go nowhere.

You will see from the paperwork that comes with the NG form, that Grounds have to be submitted in detail. For instance, you cannot just say "the Verdicts are wrong" without saying why. Stating that witnesses lied or a witness should have been called, but was not, will 99% of the time fail, as the Court would then say: "you should have called the witness at the time of trial so that is not fresh evidence".......

If the jury heard that a witness had lied and then went on to convict, then the court will say "the jury heard that and still went on to convict so this is not fresh evidence".

It's not quite as easy as it seems.

[Rights Fighter]

Yes the NG is the notice of grounds form. I have come to realise over the last few days that all the things we think should have been mentioned but weren't are not classed as new evidence as far as the law is concerned. He was found not guilty of one indictment and guilty of 5.

I will find out if trial counsel believes there are grounds, the judge certainly seemed to be guiding them towards a not guilty as it was literally her word against his.

I'm trying not to panic but we only have 28 days to get leave to appeal, we don't know if that will affect sentencing, the judge seems to be fair and will take passage of time and dads good character into account but at the end of the day the last one they decided on was buggery which carries a life sentence.

One can appeal "out of time" providing there are good reasons. Again, every single one of the appeals I have been involved with has been lodged out of time, some of them by years!

I have one being heard in March that was referred by the CCRC - Criminal Cases Review Commission.

https://www.justice.gov.uk/about/cri...iew-commission

The first appeal attempt was heard in 2008 7 years after the guy came out so we got that far although obviously it failed. The application to the CCRC was lodged in 2009 and referred last year back to the CA (Court of Appeal). So please do not give up hope just yet.

[Nowhere to turn]

Wrongly convicted

Our solicitor has told me today that the barristers advice will be negative so we need to work on the assumption that we will be appealing ourselves without them.
Also can anyone tell me whether my dad has to go on the sex offenders register even though the trial was based on the 1956 act not 2003. I have read mixed things on the Internet about convictions of crimes pre 1997 when the register was started not having to go on it.
Thanks

One can appeal "out of time" providing there are good reasons. Again, every single one of the appeals I have been involved with has been lodged out of time, some of them by years!

I have one being heard in March that was referred by the CCRC - Criminal Cases Review Commission.

https://www.justice.gov.uk/about/cri...iew-commission

The first appeal attempt was heard in 2008 7 years after the guy came out so we got that far although obviously it failed. The application to the CCRC was lodged in 2009 and referred last year back to the CA (Court of Appeal). So please do not give up hope just yet.

[Rights Fighter]

If you have no experience in this sort of thing please don't try to do this yourself. If you do and it fails, and if new grounds come to light you would have to go through the CCRC and that can take years for them to come to a decision and also only 1.6% or thereabouts are referred back to the Court of Appeal (CA).

He will have to sign the SOR. He would be eligible for legal aid for an appeal for a solicitor have have a three hour review of the case.

[LetDownByLegalSystem]

Partner Wrongfully Convicted

Hi
The same this has happened to my partner, he was wrongly convicted of historic sexual crimes against a minor! (revenge of a scorned ex). This happened in October 2014, my partner has been sentenced to 14 years. I am devastated - also NO evidence just corroborated stories - very hard to disprove something that happened years ago! I have been searching for helpe since October and i'm keen to get a group going for all people in the same predicament, I believe that it will give us all support and a group has more strength and we can all learn from each other to find a solution, also when dealing with the justice system or any form of system, there is more power when in numbers. Our appeal has been submitted, we are waiting on the 'conveyor belt'. If it helps you I can tell you what I have learnt over the past few months with trying to find a solution.

Hi,
Last Friday my 76 year old dad was wrongly convicted of historic sexual crimes (1970 - 1973)against a woman who was 11-13 at the time. To say my world has fallen apart is an understatement. We have been in turmoil for 16 months since receiving the first phone call from the police. The whole experience has been traumatic, especially our week in court, when the jury despite there being so many inconsistencies and NO evidence whatsoever took very little time to decide he was guilty. He was released on unconditional bail until sentencing on 24th March, when we somehow have to walk him into that courtroom and let them take him off to prison possibly to never come out again.
How can this happen? We want to appeal but the legal team don't think we have any grounds but are trying to find some.
I'm sorry for everyone else on here who is waiting for news and I hope you get a better result than we did. I still can't believe that this time last week things were looking positive and we thought our nightmare would finally be over.

[AmandaF]

Faso

Letdownbylegalsystem- my man was very lucky if you can call it that- he got 2 years for crimes he didn't commit. Try contacting FASO for support. I agree- we are very much a forgotten group of victims

[LetDownByLegalSystem]

Thanks Amanda, I've looked at the FASO website and I will be contacting them, I never realised how prevalent wrongful convictions are until I ended up in the middle of it. The 'system' keeps it all hush hush and sweeps their mistakes under the carpet.

[AmandaF]

It's absolutely disgraceful and if you maintain your innocence you are penalised further. My man's lawyer told him he has a less than 50% chance of an appeal being heard and if it goes to retrial he has a greater than 50% chance of being found guilty and getting an even longer sentence. It's although no-one wants to accept the fact there are many miscarriages of justice. PM me if you need to chat- as I said it's a very lonely road. As a wrongly accused by the same people I'm now a virtual recluse, talking only to my immediate family and not socialising at all. What the courts did to me was absolutely disgusting- I have custody of my grandson who's now 11 and when the charges were brought against me I was bailed on the condition I did not return to my house. That left me and a ten year old on the streets with only what we stood up in. The charges against me were dismissed at trial and no-one ever heard my side of the story. It's absolutely disgusting

[LetDownByLegalSystem]

I'd like to pm you but i'm a new member so can't. I'm disgusted by what I read on this and other sites - what families are having to go through because of vindictive people compensation-seekers who are not held accountable for their actions is intolerable. To be honest, once i've got my partner out of prison (waiting for appeal) i'm going to see what I can to do actively help people in this situation. The psychological effect imprisonment has on an innocent man (and his loved ones) is devastating, and even if he is lucky enough to get the conviction overturned, his life is ruined. I believe more media attention is necessary as I (plus most people I know) was not aware that this went on!

[AmandaF]

I don't know whereabouts in the UK you are, but try and find out if there's an "Innocent Project" near you. They are often run by University LAw departments and tend not to deal with sexual offences however there is some good general advice available. I was advised to get Schedules of unused evidence/ Material which can be requested from the defence solicitor and also to consider getting information from the police under the freedom of information Act. I think you still have to know what you're looking for and you will still need advice, but they take the view that a legal aid solicitor will only spend so much time on a case so you will have to become the sleuth!! Unless , like us, the charges/trial were brought in Scotland, in which case none of this info is legally available.