Son been Liberated before Court appearance what happens now

[MrsM]

Oh god can't believe im actually having to ask these questions. My son was invited to our local police station On friday where he was interviewed and charged with two counts of Rape. Held over the weekend to appear at Court on Monday at 2 p.m. My family and I all went down to the court to be told no papers had been received by the duty solicitor and this continued until 5 mins before he was due in Court. The duty solicitor then came to advise us that he had been liberated but that the case may or may not be revisited sometime in the future. The girl has accused my son of raping her on two separate occasions in March of this year. My son admitted to sleeping with the girl and what happened at that time was the girls boyfriend came to my son's house with a gun and knife and held him at gunpoint. When the police were called to investigate this matter my son told them the truth about sleeping with this girl and we heard no more about it until last Wednesday when he received a call from the police to attend for an interview. He declined a solicitor at the time as he said he had done nothing wrong. Ive been reading the forum for the last few days and do not know what to expect now. I have told my son to go and see a solicitor here in Scotland and we have been speaking with one over the last few days. He has to return to his work tommorow and I have told him he must contact the solicitor tommorow and go and see him as soon as possible. Does anyone have know what happens now, will he be advised of what is happening or as I have been reading to my horror is this just a waiting game now to see what happens to him. I feel utterly devastated as my son is a really good lad no previous, wee part time job, nice girlfriend who is standing by him, good family background, my parents who are approaching their eighties have been so supportive but I am worried for them as their health is not great. Im so sorry to rant on but I feel totally lost and along and worry for him so much.

[Casehardened]

Hello and welcome to the forum Mrs M,

As you are doubtless aware Scottish law and procedures are different to that in England, however a couple of our members do have some knowledge of this and hopefully will see your post and be able to offer some reassurance.

In the meantime there are some snippets in this thread: http://www.daftmoo.org.uk/mooforum/s...9-Scottish-Law

Many members are supporting sons & partners through similar situation so will have empathy for you....

[Izzy]

Sorry you find yourself here Mrs M.

I have been in your shoes so can sympathise how you are feeling.
To be charged and kept in custody until the next available court date does seem to be the norm in these cases as the decision of what to do next is taken away from the police and put in the Procurator Fiscals hands. I would suspect that they have seen something that made them not put it through court so have liberated him. I would hold on to that fact when your struggling.

I think it's a good idea to see a Solicitor, he/she could write to the P.F. office and ask for an update of what's happening. Your son should write everything down as it happened while it's all fresh in his mind and take it with him. It is a bit of a waiting game but many people who have been liberated don't hear anything again.

The girls boyfriend sounds a nutter, I hope he has been charged over the gun/knife incident.

[Mr B]

Dear Mrs M

May I offer a sad welcome to this very supportive group.

Firstly may I ask your son to be aware the UK Police are not his friends. They will ignore evidence of innocence & only present evidence of guilt. Please read standing advice on the forum. It is driven by experience rather than idealism or naivety. Hence all interviews in future with a duty solicitor please. No exceptions are recommended.

May I also suggest your son gets a A4 hardback notepad & writes everything he recalls down in it, when he remembers it.

Review an social media posts by the FA & screen shot & print them immediately. Do not post anything anywhere for any reason on any social media.

From a family perspective meet up once a week & pool your thinking & any new facts. Multiple minds on the same problem as a multi-generational family will tease out more than you realise. Put the thinking in the notebook mentioned above.

This will put incredible pressures on you as family - so be kind if you can, to each other. The best advice I had was "to think of it from {your false accusers} point of view". Doing this you will understand the motivation. Once you understand the motivation, a lot of stress goes away. You can see the machine against you rather than it being hidden by the fog of allegation & only hearing its tracks closing the distance.

You are not alone. You will grow (even if you do not want to - I really did not want to grow, I admit). You must fight this (to avoid depression). For the avoidance of doubt, you are not alone. Pop back here frequently. It really is a blessedly useful forum. I wish I had found it earlier.

Research a suitable solicitor. Look on this forum first...

You know the truth. Have faith that the truth will out. To be sure though, it needs some help & common sense. Give it yours.

Kindest regards for the best of outcomes
Mr M

[MrsM]

Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement. I have contacted one of the top three criminal lawyers in Scotland and an appointment has been made for my son to go and see him very soon. Its so sad to see so many stories on here of innocent people being accused of something so terrible and the affect it has on family members is heartbreaking. Apparently the police tried to pressure my son into saying he raped this girl whilst in the interview repeatedly saying to him to tell them he had raped her on two separate occasions. We are not sure what is happening with the boyfriend but the Solicitor is very interested to find out for us as feels this looks like a revenge situation as his trial may possibly be looming. I will be visiting this forum alot over the forthcoming months I fear and send out prayers of hope to those suffering a similar situation.

[Mr B]

With a Duty Solicitor present, a lot of the leading / pressuring goes away....

Always have a Duty Solicitor present no matter what.

Go with your son if you can. He may need another pair of eyes & ears to ask questions. Write them down & prioritise them for asking the Solicitor.

Mr B

[Franticwithworry]

I absolutely agree with Mr B's advice to go to the appointment with your son. Two sets of eyes and ears are better than one. If he doesn't want his Mum along, please encourage him to take a trusted friend for the same reason. A list of prepared questions is good and take notes as it's impossible to remember everything.

We are dealing with the Scottish system too even though we live in England which is very frightening, because we know nothing of the system at all, and we have an accuser in England as well - the accusers know each other. The English matter has been going on for a year but the Scottish one is much quicker. It should be over by Christmas but it boggles our minds that its gone to court without anyone ever speaking to my man about it. I'm so glad to hear that you have a good solicitor, but don't be afraid to shop around if you meet him or her and have any reservations.

We are very reassured by the solicitor we have instucted - also apparently one of the best and most experienced in Scotland - and I left a recommendation on the appropriate thread. Please do the same if you are happy as Scottish information is hard to come by.

With very best wishes to you and your son. I'm rapidly and sadly coming to the conclusion that no man or boy is safe from false accusations and the distress and expense that accompany them.

[Ladyscot]

Hi there,

My man was liberated and we never heard anything ever again. This was over 3 years ago. If you search liberated you should find threads relative to your current situation. If you have any questions feel free to ask but do the search and you may find your questions answered.

Sorry if that sounds curt but i just dont like going over that horrid time ( albeit thanfully brief in our circumstance) .

All the best
LS

[Mr B]

From FWW: "I'm rapidly and sadly coming to the conclusion that no man or boy is safe from false accusations and the distress and expense that accompany them. "

No man / boy is safe in the current legislative environment. "Normal checks & balances" if they ever did exist, in the arrogant UK legal system have been suspended post Savile.

Use every option you have, pool information with trusted family members. Look at this from your accusers Point of View. Think like them in their position. You will find their motivation that way. Find the motivation & then analyse it out. Take it apart. Write your analysis down. Play it back. Continue until you have a model that works & then can predict their future options.

Do not discard senior family members advice...too old to be useful. Human nature has not changed in 3500 years. Use the resources you have. Think. Write. Question. Think again. Repeat.

Hope that helps. Come back as often as you need. You are not alone. Little & often.

Virtually

Kindest regards
Mr B

[innocentson]

Hi : stay calm but prepared

Hi & a sad welcome

I don't know Scottish legal processes so can only advise you as one mum to another

Hope for the best eg they see this is a FA and it gets closed quickly (fingers crossed for you)
but follow the advice given so well by mr B

- the police chase convictions and not innocence !
So keep notes on everything.
Check her facebook
Retain any texts / messages from her to your son
Get him to do a timeline of what happened & when
List of witnesses or friends in the "know" etc

The motive ; eg has she said this to keep her boyfriend off her back for cheating on him ?
- is she jealous of your sons girlfriend..... etc etc
Just in case & give it to your solicitor :NOT the police

My sons FA went all the way to trial & is Unanimous NG in 10 mins : hopefully yours won't get that far but be ready just in case

Good luck !
Innocentson

[Wronglyaccused2016]

Hi there,

My man was liberated and we never heard anything ever again. This was over 3 years ago. If you search liberated you should find threads relative to your current situation. If you have any questions feel free to ask but do the search and you may find your questions answered.

Sorry if that sounds curt but i just dont like going over that horrid time ( albeit thanfully brief in our circumstance) .

All the best
LS

Hi, just a quick question, did you chase the PF or did it just dissapear?

I have full info on my situation in another post but like your husband I was liberated at court, without stepping foot into a courtroom might I add.
This was 8 months ago....

Thanks in advance.

[Ladyscot]

We didnt chase the pf or chase his phone or clothes held by the police.

There was zero evidence in our case (as nothing happened).

Our lawyer said we wont hear anything again and we didnt. If your lawyer said something of similar sentiment id believe him/her. I was of course still scared but it gets easier and here i am years later and it is over with.

I wouldnt chase the pf but its up to you.

[Wronglyaccused2016]

We didnt chase the pf or chase his phone or clothes held by the police.

There was zero evidence in our case (as nothing happened).

Our lawyer said we wont hear anything again and we didnt. If your lawyer said something of similar sentiment id believe him/her. I was of course still scared but it gets easier and here i am years later and it is over with.

I wouldnt chase the pf but its up to you.

Thank you for your reply, I thought that wpuld be the answer, true be told I couldnt handld being anywhere near a lawyer let alone a PF again so it is some comfort that you guys didnt chase em.

I assume you never got any notification from the PF or your lawyer to say nothing else was going to happen?

My case is slightly different to yours as there was DNA evidence but it appears that wasnt enough to quantify as sufficient evidence which is the right outcome as I certainly did not rape/sexually assault this 'woman'.

Thank you again for your reply and apologies if I am bringing it all back to you, unfortunately there isnt much info out there for us affected by the way the Scottish law goes about it's business.

[Izzy]

We did chase it up a bit , right at the beginning after the liberation took place and got no-where. Was advised not to chase it up at the six months stage as the Solicitor said he had done it with another similar case and they had pushed it through to court.

Chased it up after all belongings were returned and received a letter which didn't give any closure, changed Solicitors, 18 months later. Was told that the Moorov Doctrine can be used if anything was to happen in the future so there wasn't going to be a letter of closure, so had to move on without it.