False allegations of Rape/Sexual assault during divorce/relationship break up.

[AJ123]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for replies as always.

Family solicitors is not on legal aid basis and I am aware I will pay for it. It's sort of my last chance to get contact with children. I manage to get in touch with SW. Her decision to grant me contact with children was changed by her management. I don't understand what was the purpose of having meetings with her and then someone without seeing/talking to me changed it anyway.

Thanks for the link with all solicitors, I found one in my area, but it's private only. I will wait for bail conditions review this week and will see if Im charged or not. Is any criminal solicitor able to do any sort of work, before I get charged? Can they influence the speed or anything at all?

As to changing your solicitor before charge, again unless you are willing and able to pay privately, they will not be able to spend a great deal of time on your case. As to whether you should, my personal view would be to wait to see what happens, though there are contrary views on the forum to the effect that a proactive firm may fend off a charge.

If it's private what sort of money we are talking about? I've no idea what I could expect?

It's the worst allegation a woman can make about a man and is the ultimate weapon in a divorce case.
What my wife can gain from it? Im pretty certain she doesn't want me to go to jail. I know that she doesn't want whole custody of children.
So the only benefits I can suspect would be money or she already is with someone else.

Thanks again.

[Peter1975]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for replies as always.

Family solicitors is not on legal aid basis and I am aware I will pay for it. It's sort of my last chance to get contact with children. I manage to get in touch with SW. Her decision to grant me contact with children was changed by her management. I don't understand what was the purpose of having meetings with her and then someone without seeing/talking to me changed it anyway.

Thanks for the link with all solicitors, I found one in my area, but it's private only. I will wait for bail conditions review this week and will see if Im charged or not. Is any criminal solicitor able to do any sort of work, before I get charged? Can they influence the speed or anything at all?

As to changing your solicitor before charge, again unless you are willing and able to pay privately, they will not be able to spend a great deal of time on your case. As to whether you should, my personal view would be to wait to see what happens, though there are contrary views on the forum to the effect that a proactive firm may fend off a charge.

If it's private what sort of money we are talking about? I've no idea what I could expect?

It's the worst allegation a woman can make about a man and is the ultimate weapon in a divorce case.
What my wife can gain from it? Im pretty certain she doesn't want me to go to jail. I know that she doesn't want whole custody of children.
So the only benefits I can suspect would be money or she already is with someone else.

Thanks again.

I wish I had a pound for every time I've heard that a SW has been overruled by a manager - Whether they are hiding behind their manager and just being two faced or genuinely overruled, I wouldn't know. Advice from a family solicitor would be the best way forward here. If your ex supports contact then hopefully that will help. What won't help is if your bail conditions include not having contact for purposes of protecting your child as a witness - If this is the case, you will need your crim sol to try and vary this to allow supervised contact.

As for the merits of paying for a criminal solicitor to make representations on your behalf.. This is really case specific. Generally the advice here has always been that a solicitor can't do much unless you are charged and to just wait it out but some will tell you that it's worth it.

There is no legal aid for this so regardless of whether or not a sol takes on legal aid work, you will have to pay privately. All legal aid solicitors also take on private work. I can only suggest that you speak to one or two, including the your current ones and decide for yourself what they can realistically do.

In my experience, very few people end up being charged in your situation.

Private rates vary but I think highly rated Chris Saltrese charges something like £250 per hour + VAT, Sols in the London area are more like £400 P/H - it won't be cheap.

What can she gain?

1) a legal aid family court solicitor while you have to fund your own.
2) The upper hand.

See this article from a couple of years ago :

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-44628179

Lastly, I can't be bothered to read back up the thread tonight so I will add to follow good standard advice, preserve evidence such as texts ect and work on your timeline - This will help sols pick up the facts of your case quickly.

Keep cool.

[AJ123]

Another review passed and yet again extended, but "only" by 2 weeks. Now it makes total of 3 months since the whole case started.

If I understand this correctly 3 months is the max time police can use. Next time they need to request court to extend it? Is that right?

I also been told police now forwarded all the evidence to CPS to make a decision, hopefully 2 weeks is enough time.

In the meantime I've hired family law solicitor. Seems very good, straight to the point. Unfortunately his views regarding seeing children are not that optimistic:
He will get in touch with social services, my wife etc and request court hearing (waiting list 4-6 weeks)
depending how many court hearings will be required solicitor reckons in the worst case scenario it may take up to 4 to 6 months
again depending how many court hearings his est cost is 10-15k

I've give him decent advance payment to start ball rolling to cover all the expenses: sending letter, court hearing, travel etc

He also stated that even if Police/CPS drops the case not necessarily I will get access straight away to my children. Looks like I've wasted 2.5 months waiting for something to happen, but according to him Family law solicitor is the only channel. Is that correct?

He also stated that it is not possible that my current criminal law solicitor made my representation in magistrate court to remove/amend bail conditions regarding children. That's what I ve been told by criminal law solicitor back in December, but apparently we have lost it. Family law solicitor told me that they have lied to me, as it's not possible for them to do that.
Not the best prospect if they are going to defend me if I'm charged.

I will keep you posted by the end of February.
Thanks.

[Peter1975]

As far as I can recall, the police can extend bail without a court order for up to six months but to go beyond 3 months requires the authorisation of a higher ranked officer.

It would seem though that things are moving behind the scenes, or at least I hope so.

A bit of googling should help you contact others who will be in a better position to advise on the costs of a family solicitor

Either your crim sols represented you in court regarding your bail conditions or they didn't - the paperwork should tell you the truth.

Keep cool, hang in there

[AJ123]

Hi Peter,

Unfortunately Police send a letter to let me know that they will ask Court to get it extended for further 3 months.
However it allows me add some comments, so court have both side view on extending the bail. My crime solicitor will reply on my behalf, unfortunately it is not covered by legal aid, so I will have to pay for it. I hope it is worth paying. Is it possible that Court would reject Police request?

Either your crim sols represented you in court regarding your bail conditions or they didn't - the paperwork should tell you the truth.

I have no paperwork at all about the case. The only thing I have is all extended bail letters, when they asking me to show up on specific date and time to respond my bail. Other than that I never received anything else.

[Peter1975]

I would say it's unlikely the court will outright reject the police wanting to extend bail but they may allow some variation in the terms.

The fact that your son may be suffering from not having any contact with his Dad and that your ex supports that contact should hopefully be a good reason to argue for any bail restrictions to be varied - To protect your son as a witness and to protect yourself against any allegations that you might try to influence him, asking why supervised contact should not be possible seems a fair question to me

It would seem that your Sols may have tried to argue with the police about the bail terms but this has not been before a judge.

Good luck.

[AJ123]

7 months later, also due to stress I ended up with Covid in coma, ventilator etc

However I survived covid and got NFA yesterday.
Happy days.

I had really nightmare for last 7 months, but now feels great.

If you innocent, keep believing, it will come to an end one day.

[Casehardened]

Sorry to hear that you caught covid 19 and would agree with you that stress does affect the immune system but happily you came through it (note my signature line!)

Brilliant news also about your NFA and am pleased to dock the banana boat again this week, onwards and upwards from now on....

[Franticwithworry]

What fabulous news. Not the COVID :-( but the NFA :-).

Here are some bananas and best wishes for a bright future and re-established contact with your son.