help and advice

[Neil]

me and a friend where arrested on suspicion of rape in november, the incident happened in june. there is no dna or medical results and i have never been in the premises in my life as to where the attack is supposed to have taken place. we have witness statements from other friends corrobrating where we were at certain times, and we have been told that all the evidence pionts to another friend whom i may had was some 25 minutes late back to the bus that particular evening. but the women is accusing us of doing it.
Advice please

[BroA8]

Not nice!

Hi Neil, there's only one thing worse than being raped, or indeed being the victim of any crime and that is being wrongly accused of one! My advice is this: Hopefuly you had a Solicitor with you during Interview? Be advised by him or her and if you didn't have one then get one! I'm guessing you are now on bail? DON'T under any circumstances breach it or any conditions attached to it. Do NOT conduct your own investigation, if you have statements from witnesses make sure you let your Solicitor have them and there's no harm in sending copies to the Officer in the Case, but do everything through your Solicitor. It's hard when you read some of the threads posted here to have faith in the system, some people have suffered badly as a result of doing just that but you KNOW you didn't do it. It concerns me why this person is stating it was you and your friend if its obvious it couldn't of been! was she drunk? All you can do for now Neil is wait and try and seek comfort in the fact that you're not the first and you won't be the last!

[utterlydestroyed]

Sorry to hear this Neil

What Bro said

Plus, make sure those witnesses statements from those who can corroborate you were not where the incident is said to have taken place..ARE written down and in the hands of your brief (solicitor) asap.

It will also give you some peace of mind if you have copies of those statements which support you, to read.

UD

[Neil]

Thanks for that, just to let you know all the statements are with the officer in charge,who spoke to my friend who is also accused and he said all the statements agree with our version of events so we dont know why it is still going on when it is obvious we weren't there.
Can we see the statements from the police or is that only if we get charged. I cannot believe it is taking this long to get sorted out the alleged rape took place in June and we didn't get arrested until November which I find strange also. Apparently the woman has admitted to being with another bloke on the stag night even though her husband was waiting for her in the hotel and she was very drunk and says that we drugged her - I hate drugs and have never touched them in my life!

[utterlydestroyed]

Hi Neil

Its one of the frustrations, the length of time it takes!

If police took the written statments you may never get to see them unless it goes to court. The police did'nt bother to interview my witnesses so I had to ask witnesses to make statements, which I then passed to my solicitor (keeping copies for myself for reference).

You don't mention any police bail?

Perhaps you should give your solicitor a gentle nudge to find out how things a proceeding. I know a friend who was implicated by an allegation NEVER heard a thing from police, leavng him worried sick. Nobody told him the case was finalised and NFA'd (no further action).

chin up

UD

[BroA8]

The reason these things take so long is because sadly "ours" aren't the only crimes being investigated. The Officer in the Case could well have several cases on the go at any one time and the Case loads of the CPS are vast. Your case will have been given a "to do date" which is often weeks! In cases where there is No Further Action the accused will receive a letter to that effect. Your case is a bit different in as much as it would appear something happened to the poor woman involved, in other words, it doesn't sound like a deliberate accusation on her part. You said you suspected another friend of doing this crime? If the woman was drugged or even just very drunk, that coupled with the trauma she has endured would have gone some way towards her mix up of who did what, you with me so far Neil? Without forensic evidence this is a typical example of why cases get lost at court. Imagine if you will there is no forensic evidence and this other guy is guilty of the offence but won't admit it, if he goes to court his Barrister will argue that she is mistaken, she must be because in the first instance she accused the wrong people, "could it be, members of the Jury, that this woman in her drunken state simply dreampt the whole thing?" Unfortunately Neil, whilst people who are falsley accused end up in prison, there are also victims out there who get no Justice. Your case sounds strong to me and I hope all works out for you and indeed her if she truly was a victim... There of cause alot of peolpe walking free who shouldn't be!!

[Neil]

Thanks again for replying we are on Bail at the moment and have been for months now - each time they come up with a bail date they cancel it the day before (four times now) which is why I am getting really fed up. The woman in question knew the man she went with and we feel that maybe she used rape as an alibi when she returned to the hotel where her husband was staying. Her story is very complicated and not nice and some of it doesn't make sense.

[utterlydestroyed]

Niel, sadly a great many of these cases don't make sense.

Soz BroA8, but, Errr! I think what BroA8 actually meant was, 'in cases where there is NFA the accused 'should', not 'will' recieve a letter to that effect. I know of two situations where no letter was recieved until persued by persons once they had found out through alternate means that the case was NFA'd months previously.

Even then an eventually recieved police letter was such 'gobbledegok' that it had to be translated by a solicitor as it made absoloutly no common sense. No 'crystal award' for plain english there!

In one situation it was a chance discovery by a solicitor, who was acting as a 'duty solicitor' at court. A person up on criminal motoring offences began berating that it was unfair their rape case (they were the 'false' accuser) had been NFA'd. The solicitor realising a conflict of interest as the person was describing a case he (the solicitor) was defending. It turned out police had notified the accuser some seven weeks previously, but failed to tell the falsely accused that the case was NFA'd until pursued as a result of the accidental discovered solicitor information.

Even then it later transpired that the police failed to remove the falsely accused suspect from the police computer as a suspected rapist for months after the case finalised NFA!!! (Others may like to note this as you 'may' still be on a police computer as a suspect rapist). That further 'balls up' by police only came to light as a result of yet another complaint against police.

There are those here who fully understand the debilitating & grinding effect of a 'Damocles sword' hanging overhead has upon one.

There are of cause alot of people walking free who shouldn't be, like 'false accusors' !!

[BroA8]

NFA Letters etc

It,s so easy to lay all the blame at "The Police" if you see them as "The Establishment" they're not! NFA letters don't come from the Police and never have done! they come from The Administration of Justice Department, true they may be on Constabulary headed paper but its not down to the Officer to inform the accused believe it or not, he/she is committed to the victim. Sometimes an NFA letter will go via the Officer to sign but not all Constabularies do this. In most cases the accused solicitor should receive a copy or even sometimes the original. The systems not fool proof and mistakes are made unfortunately. Thats not an excuse thats just the way it is. We each strive to be the best at what we do in our chosen careers, some do it better than others, its not right or acceptable to do or be less than is expected, its just the way it is...

[utterlydestroyed]

Sorry BroA8, but I'm going to have to disagree with you here and I am quoting directly from an IPCC enquiry report!

9.1.31 Failure to inform a person subject of an investigation of an NFA decission is a serious allegation and the IPCC does not reach a decission on such an allegation easily. If Officer A did inform Mr (redacted) of the NFA decission, she made a serious omission in not recording this conversation. However there is evidence in the form of case progress notes that Officer A did meet with Mr (redacted) to return his property.

9.1.33 However, it is clear that if Officer A did inform Mr (redacted) of the NFA decission, she neglected to record this very important piece of information. I therefore recommend that Officer A recieve suitable words of advice in relation to this issue.

This was SEVEN weeks after the false accuser was apparently made aware the case was NFA'd.

Police up in East Anglia may be more on the ball, but where I come from...well you get the gist from my postings!

[Neil]

Good news the detective in charge of my case kindly rang me last night to tell me that it is all over - thank goodness now I can get on with my life. I feel that maybe she should somehow pay for the hell she has put us through recently but I just want to forget about it now. Thanks for all your help and good luck with your cases.

[utterlydestroyed]

Result

Pleased for you.

Hugz x

UD

[BroA8]

Nice one Neil

Ave a good one!

[Saffron]

Phew! common sense prevailed. Great to have good news.