Accused by 5 year old

[Justice in need]

Hi
I am desperately looking for any sort of help.My husband is in prison on false accusation by our friends daughter.no grounds of appeal as it is only based on girls statement,now the legal aid i have to pay back and i am the only earning member in our family and we have two children.
I just do not know what to do?
Any sort of help will be appreciated
Thank you

[Casehardened]

Firstly can I welcome you to the forum and I am sure you will find a great deal of support here.

However to help members offer the correct support, I'll try to summarise your situation as I see it; but please correct me if I'm mistaken.....

Your husband has been convicted through a false accusation and is currently serving the sentence imposed. His barrister will have given him a document titled 'Advice on Appeal'; is this what you refer to when you say there are no grounds to appeal? Incidentally, what was the indictment and the sentence?

Secondly he was given legal aid but was means tested and was required to pay a contribution towards these costs.

Finally, to end on a positive note, even if we can't help you in practical terms, you will find this forum helpful in the sense that you are
among folks who understand your situation either through personal experience or through supporting someone who has been accused.

[Casehardened]

I do have some thoughts about the legal aid issue:

Did he have an income at the time of the accusation and trial? If so the means testing will have been on the basis of your joint income and on the assumption that this income will continue.

I am assuming that your sole income is considerably less than the joint income and my thoughts are that if it is now less than the lower limit for making a contribution (£12,475 from https://www.gov.uk/guidance/criminal...-means-testing) the payments will be suspended until such a time that your income increases (i.e. when your husband resumes employment) and you are able to resume payments.

If your income is greater than this figure, the required payments may be reduced, but if the contributions were based on your sole income (i.e. your husband was not in employment at the time of application) you can only appeal against them on grounds of hardship.

Obviously you need professional advice on this and the first port of call should be the solicitors who applied for legal aid on his behalf. If you feel that you can't approach them then the CAB can offer general debt advice though they probably won't be able to give specific advice on legal aid contributions.

[Franticwithworry]

I can't add anything to Casehardend's great advice, but welcome. You'll find plenty of support here. Things have been a little quiet over the last few days, but I'm sure that's the effect of Christmas and New Year when hopefully some have nice things on their minds for a bit.

'Real life' is sure to get back to 'normal' soon. Please feel free to browse the site fully. There's lots of wonderful and useful information to be found, even when day-to-day posting is a little subdued.