How is iur system so flawed?

[Stressed out mother]

This time last week we were waiting to start the court case for counts of two rape and a sexual assault made by an ex girlfriend of my sons, who he numerous times collected from places where she said she was being abused by her partner!
Having gone through hell for eighteen months we eventually have our barrister take us into a private room where he told us that evidence that he had submitted to the prosecution that morning had made the prosecution decide to withdraw all charges!!
Now wonderful you might all think, and yes I have to agree apart from one small thing......
That information had been passed to the police the day after he was arrested, given to the police when they returned him home!!
Our barrister decided to refrain from passing this information over earlier as he said it would have just sat on a desk never looked at!! I believe he is quite correct in that assumption. Not only that but the police had never passed this onto the prosecution!!!
Copies of messages between my son and the FA had been tampered with, in as much as she had removed a number of her commenrs and messages prior to passing them over to the cps etc. Ours were intact, warts and all!!
Now prior to getting legal aid once this went to crown court and because we changed solicitors from the duty solicitor provided by the police, it has cost my son over £1000 for this eighteen months of hell. Never mind added costs of loss of earnings to attend courts and meetings, travelling, clothes, stocking a nasty bag etc etc.
During this time he has been working part time whilst retraining to be a plumber. He has been unable to apply for jobs due to the impending case and not only has his life been on hold, but so has the lives of the rest of the family.
If his sons mother (from another relationship) had found out about this, he would have lost access to his son as she is always looking for an excuse to prevent him seeing him. In short it has cost everyone so much, not just in monetary terms.
I would hate to think what the final costs of this to the legal aid etc will be. No doubt tens of thousands!!
Our taxes go to pay towards all this. How on earth is it all allowed to get to this stage? Time wasted, lives ruined, families stretched to breaking point. Meanwhile there is no repercussions for the FA in these cases. The police, the CPS, who all complain of lack of manpower and funds, yet again waste money on accusations that had proof of innocence all along!
Please excuse me if i say all confidence in our police force has evaporated, never mind my belief in a fair legal system. Yes he is free. Yes the judge was far from happy with the prosecution and took them into his chambers for a "chat", but this could have and should have never got so far.
To all of you, accused and supporting family, i wish you all the very best. Collect as much info as you possibly can. Our barrister was shocked by the two reams of paper that made up the file of information that i gave him on our very first visit! Guess what....the information that cleared my son was in that file!
Always hope for the best outcome, but also no matter how hard it is, get your accounts, life etc in order, just in case things turn out for the worst!
Good luck to everyone!

[Peter1975]

I'm afraid your case is just one of many where late or non disclosure has resulted in the system not working as it should. That this is not a scandal except in legal circles is truly lamentable but a report by the inspectorates that showed non or late disclosure in 55% of cases did make the news earlier this year : http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-a7846021.html

The CPS are supposed to keep cases under "continuous review" but how can they review evidence that they don't have? In this regard, your barrister has also failed in his duties to disclose evidence that undermines the prosecution case but as he says, it would have likely not been looked at until trial anyway and tactically, if the prosecutor hadn't agreed to stop the case he would have at least been able to "ambush" the complainant with the full set of messages without any bent coppers giving her prior warning.

It's no secret that the police are under enormous political pressure to increase prosecutions, once they have got a charge they get a clear up for their stats and many will tell you that their oic got a promotion on the back of putting someone innocent in court.

You may not get very much satisfaction but as the police were given those messages and didn't pass them on, I think it would be worth complaining to their professional standards department either directly or via the IPCC to whom you can escalate your complaint if you are not happy with the outcome of your first complaint. You could also try copying everything to your local MP and asking them to investigate why this happened as well as the local crime commissioner and the chief constable. You could ask, depending on the content of the messages, why the police didn't begin an investigation into the accuser perverting the course of justice or wasting police time. You have every right to make a stink.

You may not achieve much except a slap on the wrists for the oic and it's possible of course that this was a genuine oversight from an overworked plod but it may make them do their job properly in the next case and might possibly delay that promotion.

Ask your solicitors about what may be reimbursed as far as the financial losses are concerned but I believe witness costs, including travel and lost wages can be claimed.

[Franticwithworry]

Sadly, you are not alone and I hope you are able to take Peter1975's excellent advice and get some redress. It needs people caught up in this broken system to make more waves than ever, though I know people have been trying for decades.

We are dealing with 2 accusations, one of which has been dealt with and I was horrified to discover that the prosecuting counsel didn't even look at the file until the night before the trial, and the result was that the case was dropped before it came before the judge. SO much wasted time, energy and taxpayer's money, when the decision not to bring the case before the judge could have been made at any time. Common sense should have told them that the judge would not think it appropriate to hear it on the barest look at the file and the evidence.

We are still waiting a decision on the second accusation and were again horrified to discover that my husband was arrested but 2 years on and we are still being told that the investigation has only just begun. I cannot get to grips with the idea that we have been told by the police that if my husband has done nothing wrong, he has nothing to worry about and should just get on with his life. If only it were that easy. The emotional toll of these accusations is incalculable, but I am determined to make more waves when I can be sure that there will be no repercussions for the ongoing matter.

Along with all of this is the constant cry that no-one lies about these things and the idea among some women that most if not all men are guilty of some sort of sexual misconduct, as if that justifies ruining peoples live with invented allegations. I've looked at a few other websites and wish I could take some of the posters by the scruff of the neck and shake some sense into them.

The idea that the police cannot be trusted to deal appropriately with evidence that clears someone's name is outrageous and I wish cases like this got more publicity. The push for convictions at any cost is basically a war on men's sexuality.