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Firstly, please consider that the fact that you have been able to search the internet for Falsely Accused support and have arrived at this page. This means that there is some doubt about your case; if the police had incontrovertible proof that you carried out the act of which you have been accused, you would have already been charged and remanded in custody awaiting trial.
What has happened to you is that someone has contacted the police and accused you of this offence. The police have a remit to investigate any crime and the political climate at the present time dictates that they investigate sexual and other offences against women and minors very thoroughly. Obviously the easiest way to start this investigation is to speak to the alleged perpetrator, hence you may have been arrested, cautioned, fingerprinted, DNA sampled, photographed, etc and locked in a cell as well as actually interviewed. Not a comfortable process and this may well be the first time you have been arrested and come into more than fleeting contact with the police force.
The interview
Very likely by now you will have already been interviewed so it’s probably too late to suggest that you contact a solicitor who specialises in false allegations, you may have accepted the police’s offer of a duty solicitor or more than likely you refused to have a solicitor present as after all “ only guilty people need solicitors”. In either case you probably have answered all the OIC's (officer in [charge of] case) questions as best you could and put forward your side of the events, hopefully without tripping up or making any inadvertent admissions. You will have been bailed, with or without conditions, to return to the police station at a future date and shown out of the back door to continue with your everyday life.
What happens now depends on the alleged offence: if it is current (i.e. alleged to have happened in the last 14 days) then DNA samples and forensics will be checked and looked at in conjunction with the statements from the interviews; if historical then only the statements of the various witnesses can be considered (and yes, in this instance, a statement is considered to be evidence!) If any of the statements can be confirmed or disproved from your mobile or computer, or if any of the allegations involve minors, then these will be seized for examination.
Bail
All of this takes time so you have probably been given a bail date 6/8 weeks hence; but be prepared for this to be then extended for a further period. Computer forensics, unless your case is serious enough to go to the front of the queue, typically take 5/7 months to be carried out. The CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) who oversee the investigation have a huge workload so non-urgent cases get pushed back (e.g. if your case is simply about consent: you thought the sexual encounter was consensual but your partner [later] disagreed; this would not be a priority)
[UPDATE Bail imposed for investigations commencing after the 2nd of April 2017 will be capped at 28 days. If the investigation has not been concluded by that date a further three months bail can be imposed by the OIC subject to the approval of a senior officer and then further extended if necessary by application to a Magistrates Court. Details of the legislation are in this link: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/...pter/1/enacted ]
To avoid the necessity of imposing bail and so having to adhere to this timescale it seems that many forces, where there is no hard evidence to confirm the allegation, are choosing to release the person they have interviewed 'under investigation', this investigation not being subject to any timescale.
The waiting game
How do you fill these months while you are waiting for a decision from the CPS as to what will happen to you? Hopefully you will have someone to bounce your worries off, either in real life or in a support forum like this one, after all this is hardly the sort of situation you will want to discuss with casual acquaintances. You are probably anxious to construct a defence and mount a legal challenge to the allegations but bear in mind that, until and if you are charged, that solicitors can only claim legal aid on your behalf for attending interviews with you.
Furthermore the CPS won’t release copies of the accuser’s statement to your solicitor unless you are charged so the only indication of the strength of the case against you is what you may have gleaned during the interview or what was disclosed to the solicitor. In this respect, your copies of the tapes of the interview are useful for later analysis of what was actually said. When constructing a defence it can be very useful to listen to these tapes several times; you may pick up discrepancies which passed you by during the stress of the interview.[UPDATE Different police forces now have different policies regarding releasing the interviewee's copy of the recording and it is no longer automatic to receive this]
While you are thinking over the events that led to the accusation you may find that there are discrepancies that disprove the accuser's account (hardly surprising as false accusations are seldom carefully thought through) The natural and normal reaction will be to phone up the OIC and inform him of these in the hope he will then realise the accuser has made it all up; he will then inform the CPS who will discontinue the case against you.
While it is possible that this will happen, the most likely outcome is that, for the purpose of fully investigating the case, the OIC will re-interview the accuser regarding the discrepancies that you have highlighted. It is possible that the accuser will break down in tears and confess that the whole story was a work of fiction but it is equally possible that they will come up with a convincing explanation to counteract the discrepancies citing the stress and trauma of the alleged offence for not getting the details right in the first place and a new statement will be taken.
If the matter goes to court, the defence barrister can in theory cross-examine the accuser regarding the conflicting statements, but the element of surprise has been lost, and the accuser will have had time to perfect their story.
Therefore, should you be able find anything out that will disprove the accuser's version of events, the best advice is to first consult your solicitor as what best to do with this information.
Your legal team
Bear in mind, unless you are prepared to pay privately for advice, it is not fair to involve a solicitor at this stage as they would be effectively working for nothing. However as you will undoubtedly be worrying much of the time you may as well channel this nervous energy into working up a defence to the allegation, even though the outcome may be that this won’t be needed and the case will end in a NFA. (no further action) Some people in this sort of situation take the view that the professionals know best and they leave everything to them. Certainly it is true that they will know the law better than you and what would be admissible as evidence and what will not be, but what they will not know is what actually did or didn’t happen. The onus is on you to give them the ammunition to fight your corner.
While events are fresh in your mind write down a timeline of what happened and in what order. Consider any possible motives the accuser may have for making this allegation and jot these down. You may also know the accuser quite well and in this case you could draft some questions for the barrister to put to her in cross examination. If the worst comes to the worst, and you are charged, you and your solicitor can use these notes to formulate a defence statement. Research the internet for any information pertaining to your case: Specialist solicitors websites; PACE (police procedures guide); CPS procedures and evidential requirements; trial transcripts.
Your emotions
Don’t be surprised to find that your emotional state will resemble a roller coaster, after all this may well be the most traumatic event that you have yet experienced in your life. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from your GP if you’re feeling tired, depressed, or suicidal. Chat to close family members and friends about your feelings if this is possible, if not post up on this forum, here you will probably find someone who has been in a similar position.
If you are charged.....
Eventually your time in limbo will end in one of two ways: you will be NFA’d or you will be charged. If you are charged then it is time to really start fighting. Hopefully by now you will have researched solicitor’s practices that specialise in defending against false accusations; now is the time to contact them to check if they are prepared to take your case on. Legal aid is granted (via the solicitor) for criminal trials in Crown Court though if you are wealthy enough you may have to contribute a proportion of the costs. Not all solicitors nowadays will undertake legal aid work as funding has been considerably reduced. If you are able to pay privately for a solicitor and barrister, remember that if you are subsequently acquitted you can reclaim the costs incurred (up to the legal aid funding level) from the public purse.[UPDATE: For proceedings commenced after the 1st of October 2012 legal costs incurred privately (i.e. not via the legal aid scheme) cannot be reclaimed, however as from 27th January 2014, if your solicitor had applied for legal aid on your behalf which was subsequently refused due to your income or asset levels, a proportion of your costs may be reclaimed in the event of an aquittal] Your solicitor will know of barrister’s chambers with whom they usually work but there is nothing to stop you requesting a particular barrister providing they are available and are willing to take the case on. Many of the forum members have had good (and bad) experiences with their legal teams and may make recommendations and there are stickies on the forum with advice as what to expect at trial. Do be pro-active in the preparation of your defence case; don’t constantly phone up with trivialities but do make a list of bullet points from your earlier research and give them this. Make a list of character witnesses who would speak up for you and any other witnesses whose evidence would be helpful to your case. The solicitor will decide what to use and what to leave out but if you are unhappy with any of their decisions it is quite in order to politely ask them to explain the reasoning behind these. You will have a couple of meetings with your barrister but basically it is down to the solicitor to prepare the defence case for you and the barrister to present it in court. Incidentally do be aware that the barrister is obliged to inform you that you will get a reduction in your sentence for a guilty plea, but this course of action is not to be recommended in most cases (unless you did actually do it!) as it will preclude any future appeal against a conviction.
If you are NFA'd....
If you are NFA’d the police will (or should) send you a formal letter stating that you no longer need to answer bail. The actual wording depends on the force but it will fall well short of declaring your innocence but say something like that there is insufficient evidence to proceed. They will then lose interest in you but you will be left with all that pent-up emotional baggage to deal with. You will probably be angry with the justice system and/or your accuser for putting you through all this and want revenge but in practice though there is not much you can do about this. The police and the CPS were only doing their job (just imagine that it was a female relative of yours who had been raped; you would expect a thorough investigation at least and a successful prosecution at best) and are fairly well fireproofed. They are very unlikely to prosecute the accuser for PCJ (perverting the course of justice) unless she admits she has lied and/or is a serial accuser. There is a high bar for proving false allegations to a criminal standard with a reasonable prospect of conviction, perverting the course of justice is a serious matter and carries a stiff sentence. If you do indeed have proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the accuser is lying rather than mere doubt she is telling the truth then you shouldn't have anything to worry about and if you can provide this proof to the police (with the advice of a solicitor) then you may just persuade them to take you seriously.
You could sue your accuser privately for the distress and loss you have undoubtedly incurred but this is a rocky expensive path with no guarantee of success, however suing the false accuser is also difficult and likely to leave you thousands of pounds poorer. For one thing, you cannot sue anybody for anything said to the police or in a courtroom as both are subject to legal privilege. Failing that, you can take out a private prosecution but this can be costly,as Alexander Economou can tell you and in England and Wales the CPS can take over the private prosecution and either continue, reimbursing you as they did with Alexander, or they can discontinue it leaving you massively out of pocket.
Probably one of the best things to do is to write to your MP detailing your experiences. If enough people do this there may eventually be a change in the law to discourage false accusations.
When it's all over.....
Whatever happens, your life will never be as it was: you will have lost faith in the justice system, and depending on the type of accusation your attitude and behaviour towards women may change. Your arrest and the outcome, as well as your fingerprints and DNA will be on police files and if, heaven forbid, you are convicted you will be obliged to sign the Sex Offenders Register with all that implies. Even if NFA’d you will have to tread on eggshells around women for the rest of your life as, if another accusation is made against you, the original one is quite likely to be looked at again and may then be proceeded with. Don’t be tempted to contact your accuser even after the case has been dropped or respond to any approaches from her; she may well then make a further accusation against you.
On a positive note this sort of accusation is truly a life-changing experience so, after a year or two have passed, and the dust has settled on the NFA, you may well look back and conclude that the change in you has been for the better.
What has happened to you is that someone has contacted the police and accused you of this offence. The police have a remit to investigate any crime and the political climate at the present time dictates that they investigate sexual and other offences against women and minors very thoroughly. Obviously the easiest way to start this investigation is to speak to the alleged perpetrator, hence you may have been arrested, cautioned, fingerprinted, DNA sampled, photographed, etc and locked in a cell as well as actually interviewed. Not a comfortable process and this may well be the first time you have been arrested and come into more than fleeting contact with the police force.
The interview
Very likely by now you will have already been interviewed so it’s probably too late to suggest that you contact a solicitor who specialises in false allegations, you may have accepted the police’s offer of a duty solicitor or more than likely you refused to have a solicitor present as after all “ only guilty people need solicitors”. In either case you probably have answered all the OIC's (officer in [charge of] case) questions as best you could and put forward your side of the events, hopefully without tripping up or making any inadvertent admissions. You will have been bailed, with or without conditions, to return to the police station at a future date and shown out of the back door to continue with your everyday life.
What happens now depends on the alleged offence: if it is current (i.e. alleged to have happened in the last 14 days) then DNA samples and forensics will be checked and looked at in conjunction with the statements from the interviews; if historical then only the statements of the various witnesses can be considered (and yes, in this instance, a statement is considered to be evidence!) If any of the statements can be confirmed or disproved from your mobile or computer, or if any of the allegations involve minors, then these will be seized for examination.
Bail
All of this takes time so you have probably been given a bail date 6/8 weeks hence; but be prepared for this to be then extended for a further period. Computer forensics, unless your case is serious enough to go to the front of the queue, typically take 5/7 months to be carried out. The CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) who oversee the investigation have a huge workload so non-urgent cases get pushed back (e.g. if your case is simply about consent: you thought the sexual encounter was consensual but your partner [later] disagreed; this would not be a priority)
[UPDATE Bail imposed for investigations commencing after the 2nd of April 2017 will be capped at 28 days. If the investigation has not been concluded by that date a further three months bail can be imposed by the OIC subject to the approval of a senior officer and then further extended if necessary by application to a Magistrates Court. Details of the legislation are in this link: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/...pter/1/enacted ]
To avoid the necessity of imposing bail and so having to adhere to this timescale it seems that many forces, where there is no hard evidence to confirm the allegation, are choosing to release the person they have interviewed 'under investigation', this investigation not being subject to any timescale.
The waiting game
How do you fill these months while you are waiting for a decision from the CPS as to what will happen to you? Hopefully you will have someone to bounce your worries off, either in real life or in a support forum like this one, after all this is hardly the sort of situation you will want to discuss with casual acquaintances. You are probably anxious to construct a defence and mount a legal challenge to the allegations but bear in mind that, until and if you are charged, that solicitors can only claim legal aid on your behalf for attending interviews with you.
Furthermore the CPS won’t release copies of the accuser’s statement to your solicitor unless you are charged so the only indication of the strength of the case against you is what you may have gleaned during the interview or what was disclosed to the solicitor. In this respect, your copies of the tapes of the interview are useful for later analysis of what was actually said. When constructing a defence it can be very useful to listen to these tapes several times; you may pick up discrepancies which passed you by during the stress of the interview.[UPDATE Different police forces now have different policies regarding releasing the interviewee's copy of the recording and it is no longer automatic to receive this]
While you are thinking over the events that led to the accusation you may find that there are discrepancies that disprove the accuser's account (hardly surprising as false accusations are seldom carefully thought through) The natural and normal reaction will be to phone up the OIC and inform him of these in the hope he will then realise the accuser has made it all up; he will then inform the CPS who will discontinue the case against you.
While it is possible that this will happen, the most likely outcome is that, for the purpose of fully investigating the case, the OIC will re-interview the accuser regarding the discrepancies that you have highlighted. It is possible that the accuser will break down in tears and confess that the whole story was a work of fiction but it is equally possible that they will come up with a convincing explanation to counteract the discrepancies citing the stress and trauma of the alleged offence for not getting the details right in the first place and a new statement will be taken.
If the matter goes to court, the defence barrister can in theory cross-examine the accuser regarding the conflicting statements, but the element of surprise has been lost, and the accuser will have had time to perfect their story.
Therefore, should you be able find anything out that will disprove the accuser's version of events, the best advice is to first consult your solicitor as what best to do with this information.
Your legal team
Bear in mind, unless you are prepared to pay privately for advice, it is not fair to involve a solicitor at this stage as they would be effectively working for nothing. However as you will undoubtedly be worrying much of the time you may as well channel this nervous energy into working up a defence to the allegation, even though the outcome may be that this won’t be needed and the case will end in a NFA. (no further action) Some people in this sort of situation take the view that the professionals know best and they leave everything to them. Certainly it is true that they will know the law better than you and what would be admissible as evidence and what will not be, but what they will not know is what actually did or didn’t happen. The onus is on you to give them the ammunition to fight your corner.
While events are fresh in your mind write down a timeline of what happened and in what order. Consider any possible motives the accuser may have for making this allegation and jot these down. You may also know the accuser quite well and in this case you could draft some questions for the barrister to put to her in cross examination. If the worst comes to the worst, and you are charged, you and your solicitor can use these notes to formulate a defence statement. Research the internet for any information pertaining to your case: Specialist solicitors websites; PACE (police procedures guide); CPS procedures and evidential requirements; trial transcripts.
Your emotions
Don’t be surprised to find that your emotional state will resemble a roller coaster, after all this may well be the most traumatic event that you have yet experienced in your life. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from your GP if you’re feeling tired, depressed, or suicidal. Chat to close family members and friends about your feelings if this is possible, if not post up on this forum, here you will probably find someone who has been in a similar position.
If you are charged.....
Eventually your time in limbo will end in one of two ways: you will be NFA’d or you will be charged. If you are charged then it is time to really start fighting. Hopefully by now you will have researched solicitor’s practices that specialise in defending against false accusations; now is the time to contact them to check if they are prepared to take your case on. Legal aid is granted (via the solicitor) for criminal trials in Crown Court though if you are wealthy enough you may have to contribute a proportion of the costs. Not all solicitors nowadays will undertake legal aid work as funding has been considerably reduced. If you are able to pay privately for a solicitor and barrister, remember that if you are subsequently acquitted you can reclaim the costs incurred (up to the legal aid funding level) from the public purse.[UPDATE: For proceedings commenced after the 1st of October 2012 legal costs incurred privately (i.e. not via the legal aid scheme) cannot be reclaimed, however as from 27th January 2014, if your solicitor had applied for legal aid on your behalf which was subsequently refused due to your income or asset levels, a proportion of your costs may be reclaimed in the event of an aquittal] Your solicitor will know of barrister’s chambers with whom they usually work but there is nothing to stop you requesting a particular barrister providing they are available and are willing to take the case on. Many of the forum members have had good (and bad) experiences with their legal teams and may make recommendations and there are stickies on the forum with advice as what to expect at trial. Do be pro-active in the preparation of your defence case; don’t constantly phone up with trivialities but do make a list of bullet points from your earlier research and give them this. Make a list of character witnesses who would speak up for you and any other witnesses whose evidence would be helpful to your case. The solicitor will decide what to use and what to leave out but if you are unhappy with any of their decisions it is quite in order to politely ask them to explain the reasoning behind these. You will have a couple of meetings with your barrister but basically it is down to the solicitor to prepare the defence case for you and the barrister to present it in court. Incidentally do be aware that the barrister is obliged to inform you that you will get a reduction in your sentence for a guilty plea, but this course of action is not to be recommended in most cases (unless you did actually do it!) as it will preclude any future appeal against a conviction.
If you are NFA'd....
If you are NFA’d the police will (or should) send you a formal letter stating that you no longer need to answer bail. The actual wording depends on the force but it will fall well short of declaring your innocence but say something like that there is insufficient evidence to proceed. They will then lose interest in you but you will be left with all that pent-up emotional baggage to deal with. You will probably be angry with the justice system and/or your accuser for putting you through all this and want revenge but in practice though there is not much you can do about this. The police and the CPS were only doing their job (just imagine that it was a female relative of yours who had been raped; you would expect a thorough investigation at least and a successful prosecution at best) and are fairly well fireproofed. They are very unlikely to prosecute the accuser for PCJ (perverting the course of justice) unless she admits she has lied and/or is a serial accuser. There is a high bar for proving false allegations to a criminal standard with a reasonable prospect of conviction, perverting the course of justice is a serious matter and carries a stiff sentence. If you do indeed have proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the accuser is lying rather than mere doubt she is telling the truth then you shouldn't have anything to worry about and if you can provide this proof to the police (with the advice of a solicitor) then you may just persuade them to take you seriously.
You could sue your accuser privately for the distress and loss you have undoubtedly incurred but this is a rocky expensive path with no guarantee of success, however suing the false accuser is also difficult and likely to leave you thousands of pounds poorer. For one thing, you cannot sue anybody for anything said to the police or in a courtroom as both are subject to legal privilege. Failing that, you can take out a private prosecution but this can be costly,as Alexander Economou can tell you and in England and Wales the CPS can take over the private prosecution and either continue, reimbursing you as they did with Alexander, or they can discontinue it leaving you massively out of pocket.
Probably one of the best things to do is to write to your MP detailing your experiences. If enough people do this there may eventually be a change in the law to discourage false accusations.
When it's all over.....
Whatever happens, your life will never be as it was: you will have lost faith in the justice system, and depending on the type of accusation your attitude and behaviour towards women may change. Your arrest and the outcome, as well as your fingerprints and DNA will be on police files and if, heaven forbid, you are convicted you will be obliged to sign the Sex Offenders Register with all that implies. Even if NFA’d you will have to tread on eggshells around women for the rest of your life as, if another accusation is made against you, the original one is quite likely to be looked at again and may then be proceeded with. Don’t be tempted to contact your accuser even after the case has been dropped or respond to any approaches from her; she may well then make a further accusation against you.
On a positive note this sort of accusation is truly a life-changing experience so, after a year or two have passed, and the dust has settled on the NFA, you may well look back and conclude that the change in you has been for the better.