Help and advise over false rape allegation. Please.

[United family]

My husband has been falsely accused of statutory rape with a member of his family which allegedly occured a few years ago. There is absolutely no truth to this accusation and I'm my husband's main witness and defender as these alledged incidents are meant to have occured when she was staying at our home on approx. 5 occasions. Each time she stayed the whole family was present. As I was present the whole time, I know that there is no substance to what she is accusing and I also have been with my husband many years and know that there is absolutely no truth what so ever to this fantasy. There is also many inconsitencey to her allegations, and they are not small ones they are major, such as where we lived. The girl making these accusation is extremely troubled and hasn't had a very stable background, but that doesn't seem to come into it when the police come to your door and take your husband away and then bring the police and social workers in to speak to your daughter. This very sick girl has alledged that our daughter witnessed one of these so called 'rapes', our daughter would have been aged about 8yrs at this time and therefore would certainly remember something like this. Our brave and wonderful daughter, who is a very mature and sensible girl gave a statement stating that she at no time seen anything of this nature and she said her Dad was the best Dad in the world, which he is!! They even asked her if anything had ever happened to her, which I think she found an incredulous question to be asked. I'm very angry that my whole family has been dragged through this by some attention seeking, mentally ill individual. My daughter will never forget these questions she's been asked and she is well aware of what her dad has been accused of.

This is not over for us yet, the police have not charged my husband, only said that they are carrying out further enquiries. That was weeks ago and we have heard nothing. Our solicitor has only said that it is more than likely that we won't here anything of it again, but is that good enough? Is that true? Do we just need to sit now and wait? We have had no dealings with criminal lawyers or the police in the past, so don't know what to do or where to turn? Someone has advised us to maybe get another solicitor, has anyone got any advice for us? If we need another solicitor then who? Please help.

Thanks,
United family over false allegation by a 'sick' individual.

[quinnb]

Hiya
In my experiences.
I am afraid you are just going to have to wait. I had to wait 4 months much to my disgust but the police work to thier own time tables and not yours.
As for getting another solictor - well at the moment you only get free legal aid why you are in the police station - out of that again in my experience they just don't want to know so regardless of what solictior you go to while your hubby is on bail they won't be all that helpful.

And if you think that the accuser will get done for wasting police time etc. Again think again - the police are just not interested. So your hubby has been stiched up and there is nothing you can do about it.

[RFLH]

Just in case - write down everything you can think of about the 'incidents' - and whatever you do don't tell the police of your alibis or they'll move the goalposts.

Have you got proper legal representation? An ordinary run of the mill solicitor just isn't good enough.

It's better to be prepared than to sit and hope it'll all go away.

[Rights Fighter]

QuinnB.

A case relating to serious sexual offences will automatically be sent to Crown court if they are proceeded with. Therefore public funding is automatically allocated and will pay for the court below (Magistrates) as well as Crown court.

I echo what RFLH has said.

[quinnb]

Thats IF it is proceeded with. I am talking about the time from the time you leave the police station on bail to the time they either charge you or not.
In that time within my experience the Solictor does NOT want to know.
They are only getting paid for time spent in the nick,

My friend went to change Sol's when we were on bail - the Sol said of course I will take your case on, but there is nothing I can really do until closer the time you answer bail. Then she said "I will ring the police" after speaking to her for about 15 mins. Then when she went to she was persuaded to stay with the original sols as they knew the case better!!!


Again in my experience I was not charged so hence that is the end of my expertise.

[Rights Fighter]

The reason solicitors cannot get involved prior to charge (it's not a question of choice as such) is because there is no paperwork for the defence at that stage. Therefore there is literally nothing for them to do.

If a "suspect" wants advice on the case itself etc then the solicitor cannot assist as he or she is not paid at the point - and there is no paperwork. This is nothing to do with greed but it's basically about time. If a solicitor is not being paid for one case then they will work on another case for which they are being paid.

If a "suspect" wants advice prior to charge as to what they should be doing then quite rightly the solicitor should charge for their time. However the advice they can give cannot be directly related to the alleged offence(s) as there is no paperwork so nobody actually will know what they are dealing with until such a time when there is.

[london]

Hi united....im currently in the same boat as your partner, although im being accused of it via my ex.
My head was and still is spinning out of control as ive been bailed for aprox 6 weeks, the first week was hard, i mean real hard, all i could think about was....
what if they beleive her/prison and everything else that comes along with it!!
i was suspended from work which now, this week ive been asked to come back...................!!
Like most have said, get yourself a proper solicitor!!
If your partner gets charged, you wont need to pay a penny.
Ive been shopping about looking for a good solicitor, one said "ill get it thrown out b4 crown court" which after researching is impossible as the mag court isnt any form of hearing but just a mear send to crown court request!

The second solicitor said i would get funding but would have to pay £1000+ vat, again that was proved to be ********....

RF recommended a good solicitor, which i was going to use (this is to RF aswell) but since speaking with my union, they said i should go with their firm which is thompson-solicitors, they refered me to another company which they use which deal with high profile cases on a criminal basis via our union, so theyre, at this time are dealing with 4 x firemen killed in fire/drunken pilots/people accused of sex offending..

http://www.psplaw.co.uk/index.cfm?asset_id=1373

thats who im going to be using, as they deal with thompson solicitors crimal side.......Have look, call them, see what you think

The main thing that draws me to them is the fact that my union is one of the biggest in europe and if they were c r a p then they'd of been sacked years and years ago...

Hope this helps...
if you need any help from me, pm me, atm im normally about, well untill i go back to work later this week

[Rights Fighter]

Hopefully you have informed Nev that you will not be making use of his services, London!

I see that the solicitors link you provided states that they are based in London. We don't know where "united family" is in the UK.

Until they register properly they won't be able to PM me and I cannot PM them.

[london]

Yes i emailed him with a very diplomatic and sorryfull email...

He actualy phoned me not long afterwards and wished me the best of luck
He also said that the people im going to move with and use are VERY VERY good, one of the best

If it wasnt for work i wouldve used NEV, but one things for sure, once my ordeal is over with, ill be hanging about in here and passing on Nev to any london or near london based people as i thought he was and seemed very professional!!!!

[Rights Fighter]

Presumably you will be hanging around PAFAA too!

[london]

Ill be hanging about for sure....

Although, in a nice way i wish i never had to find this place, now that i have ill try my best to give my advise to others

[United family]

Thanks to all who have given advice. Firstly we are not based in London and as yet don't want to submit where we are based as I'm afraid the person responsible for causing this misery to our family will read this. My husband is not out on bail as he has not been charged, he was released without charge pending further investigation, but his solicitor said in his experience we might never hear anything every again, is this correct? I now understand why the solicitor is unwilling to do anything because he is not getting paid, but we are quite happy to pay him for anything he does at the present time. How does it work if my husband is charged, do we get money to help us pay for legal fees? We just feel totally lost! However we have been tyring to function as normally as possible for our families sake and we just have to get on with our lifes as we have done nothing wrong. It is a very sad state that our legal system is in when peoples lifes can be turned upside down by some silly young girl who quite obviously has mental health issues. We both understand that these are serious allegation but there is so many lies and discrepancies in her allegations that it is incredible. Both my husband and I are very aware that the police are not on our side and that whatever we said was being twisted etc. but no matter how much it is twisted it is the truth that we are both telling and as we were interviewed seperately so much of it matches up and also the statement given by our daughter. I just hope that this is over soon and I have to agree with the fact that I'm sure she won't be prosecuted with wasting police time.