There is a long but excellent article in the Times (29th Jan 2008) cocerning the decision of two jurors to speak out angainst the conviction of child minder Keran Henderson for killing a baby in her care.
In an unprecedented move, two jurors recently spoke out to condemn the conviction of Keran Henderson, a childminder, for the murder of 11-month-old Maeve Sheppard while in her care. Their comments, revealed by The Times, were made anonymously. Now, in an exclusive article, the foreman, a lecturer living in Berkshire, questions the practical workings of the jury system ...... (more)
The following story published in the North Wales Press has been brought to our attention
A MOTHER of four pretended to be a 14-year-old rape victim as she made thousands of hoax calls to hospitals and police, a court was told yesterday.
Rachel Marsh rang most of the police forces in the country and numerous hospitals with a false story which caused great distress to health workers and police officers.
She told a desperate tale of how she had been raped by her stepfather who was going to snatch her baby and throw it into a canal.
Marsh, 28, of Rhyl, formerly of Kinmel Bay, appeared before Chester magistrates yesterday to be sentenced after admitting harassment and wasting police time.
After consideration of medical and psychiatric reports Marsh was given a three year supervision order, a 9pm to 7am daily curfew for three months, and ordered to pay £300 costs.
Cheshire policewoman Yvonne Ouseley spent 350 hours investigating her story while about 500 hours were wasted by another eight Cheshire officers, who were the first to receive the hoax calls.
Twelve days after the first Cheshire calls, Marsh made similar calls to North Wales Police and midwives.
She even texted police from the custody suite where she was being questioned, magistrates heard.
Prosecutor Anne Rouse told the court Marsh “appeared” pregnant, but when she was strip searched police found she was wearing a padded bra, and a swim suit encasing a carefully folded blanket to give the appearance of pregnancy.
Gynaecologist Sara Brigham, of the Countess of Chester Hospital, received calls from Marsh claiming she was a 14-year-old who had given birth three days earlier.
The consultant spent an extra six and a half hours on her shift trying to get to the truth.
In a statement she said: “At the time I felt upset, helpless and also frustrated. I was concerned someone eventually was going to find a young girl dead.”
PC Ouseley extended her shifts fearing for the life of the caller and her baby.
Ms Rouse said: “The investigation heightened because later conversations and texts said this stepfather had taken the baby and it was suggested he was going to get rid of the baby by throwing it in the canal.”
By June last year Marsh admitted what she had done and she pleaded guilty to the offences in August.
Elen Parry, defending, said Marsh, who is currently six months pregnant, was still adamant a 16-year-old girl was “equally involved” in the hoax calls.
Despite that, she accepted her role in what was a “strange and unusual case” and described her actions as “infantile and stupid”.
A psychiatrist had been unable to pinpoint the exact motivation, but the death of her “very supportive” grandfather in November 2006, the sudden death of her 44-year-old mother in November last year, and her move from Blackpool to North Wales after her husband left her, may all have been factors.
Source: Carl Bulter Liverpool Daily Post
Despite the state's budget woes, the Illinois State Board of Education is asking for $750,000 next year to create a system to investigate allegations of teacher misconduct.
"Seven-hundred and fifty-thousand dollars obviously is a lot of money, but in the context of this budget, it's something the state can afford," said agency spokesman Matt Vanover.
"I think this will have a significant impact on teacher standards; if there is a focus of resources on investigating and prosecuting misconduct in a consistent fashion, everyone in the state will be more aware of what conduct is expected," Darren Reisberg, general counsel for the state board, said Wednesday.
Illinois is one of only seven states that do not employ investigators to look into such matters, a 2007 investigation by Small Newspaper Group found. The investigation also found that Illinois ranks 49th among states in the rate at which it suspends or revokes teaching certificates.
(more)
Fireman cleared of rape
Posted by News Editor
Friday, January 25, 2008
A FIREMAN was cleared of rape yesterday after claims a woman had “made up” the sex attack because he refused to be her sperm donor.
Firefighter Christopher Slade, 41, told Cardiff Crown Court how the 35-year-old, who can not be named for legal reasons, went to police to report the bogus rape after being snubbed over her request for his sperm.
Slade told how the woman – a lesbian – wanted him to father a child for her and her female lover, but he refused.
The court heard she and her partner then paid £3,000 for IVF treatment to get pregnant.
Father-of-two Slade claimed the woman and her partner are “jealous” of him and his family.
Jennet Treharne, defending Slade, said, “You asked the defendant to be a sperm donor for a child with your partner.
“You were annoyed when he said no and had to pay £3,000 instead. You are jealous of the defendant and knew the best way to get him back was to make up these allegations.”
Miss Treharne said the woman’s partner called Slade’s fire station and told staff he was a rapist in a bid to get him sacked. She then said the woman called the police to report a drink-driver and told them Slade was in a pub with his family.
Miss Treharne said, “You have deliberately told lies against him – you are vindictive of him because of jealousy.”
But the victim said she was telling the truth and that Slade had raped her on several occasions.
She said, “I’m here to tell the truth and that’s all I’m here for.”
She said she didn’t report the rapes because she was frightened she wouldn’t be believed.
Slade, of Barry, was found not guilty of rape and indecent assault.
Source: ICWales
For those who missed it there is disturbing story of Keran Henderson's conviction of the manslaughter of a little girls she was childminding, in Daily Mail on the 20th January.
Keran and Iain Henderson were the ideal couple: he was a police officer and she a mother who loved children so much that she looked after them for a living.
But, in a case that has terrible echoes of previous miscarriages of justice, Keran suddenly found herself accused of manslaughter, and the family's nightmare began...
Shortly after 8am, I answered a knock on the door of our Buckinghamshire home. Two police officers flashed their badges and asked to come in.
Our eldest son, Cameron, then 11, had already left for school but our youngest, Jamie, 6, was still home and I told him to stay upstairs. The officers said they were arresting my wife, Keran, for assault and manslaughter.
Stunned, she sat down on the edge of a chair and held her hands in her lap. She had never even had a speeding ticket before. I was incensed at the shock tactic. Dawn raids are for terrorists, gangsters, hardened criminals.
I had conducted countless arrests as a police officer in London and I knew they didn't need to arrest my wife, they could have just asked her to come to the station at Maidenhead. She had co-operated with them in every way before.
"Where is your evidence? What is your case?" I demanded as they took Keran away.
She was trying to calm me down. She said she wanted to find out what had happened to Maeve, the 11-month-old baby who died after being in her care. She wanted to clear it all up and she still had faith in the system.
Keran left our home in Iver Heath and was taken to Maidenhead police station where, shaking and crying, she was made to take off her clothes and given a sweatshirt and jogging trousers to wear. They asked her the same questions they had asked twice before. The police had no new evidence, they were just trying to make her crack.
Keran told them what she had always maintained. She hadn't shaken or assaulted Maeve, as the prosecution later claimed. Maeve had some kind of fit or seizure.
When people are lying, their story changes because they can't remember all the lies they have told. Keran gave the same account right from the start, and she told it consistently for two-and-a-half years. But nothing she could say or do could dissuade them from prosecuting her for manslaughter.
Last November, two years after her arrest, she was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison (more)
The following question was asked by Claire Curtis Thomas (PPS to Baroness Scotland of Astall QC), in the House of Commomns on 21st January 2008
The fourth principle requires that personal data should be accurate and, where necessary, up to date. Correcting inaccuracies in data held could be achieved by deleting or amending, depending on the circumstances.
The Data Protection Act is administered and enforced by the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, independently of the Government. His office is able to provide advice on specific cases and situations relating to data protection.
Hansard source
The House of Lords.
Children & Young Persons Bill - Committee Stage 17th January 2008: Baroness Walmsley
Baroness Walmsley
Amendment No. 97 is about responsibility delegated to foster carers by the local authority.....
...... I want to leave Amendment No. 96 to the noble Baroness, Lady Morris. However, I am glad that she is trying to split, very transparently, the actual fee that is paid to the foster carer for doing the work of fostering the child and the allowance that is paid to cover the expenses of looking after that child. Amendment No. 98 is about making sure that if a foster parent is accused of an allegation they can continue to receive the fee, because in those circumstances the child will have been taken away from them so they are no longer entitled to the allowance. That is natural justice. It is about being innocent until proven guilty.
The possibility of an allegation being made against them is a constant fear for foster carers. Due to the nature of the children and young people placed with them, and the often fraught relationships between foster carers and birth parents, unfounded allegations are, sadly, a regular occurrence. An allegation is often used as a way of trying to break a placement, or is
17 Jan 2008 : Column GC612
due to a misunderstanding of everyday behaviour which, before the child entered care, had been a prelude to abuse. Surveys have shown that around a third of all foster carers will face an allegation during their fostering career, and the vast majority turn out to be unfounded.
Government timescales for the resolution of allegations, set out in the Working Together guidance, desirable though they are, are routinely being missed in allegation cases against foster carers. Working Together states that 80 per cent of allegations should be resolved in one month, 90 per cent should be resolved in three months and all cases should be resolved in a year. Research by Swain in 2006 has shown that 50 per cent of allegation cases last longer than three months and one in 10 last longer than a year—in some cases several years. To compound matters, in a third of all allegation cases where some or all children have been removed—which is really the de facto suspension of that foster carer from their job—almost all foster carers have their fostering income cut, and 46 per cent have their income stopped completely.
Research has also shown that 60 per cent of foster carers facing allegations are not receiving the access to independent support during an allegation that they desperately need and which they are required to receive under the current national minimum standards for fostering services. The amendment would protect foster carers from the immense financial hardship that can accompany an allegation investigation, and it would give local authorities greater incentive to resolve investigations within an acceptable timescale. If they are continuing to have to pay the very small fees that some foster carers get, it certainly makes it a very good thing that they speed up their investigations. We really need to keep these foster carers, and if there is an ongoing case against an innocent person, for all the reasons that I have outlined, they will obviously have lost the allowance because they have lost the child. If they lose the fee as well, they will have to get another job.
Baroness Walmsley
Amendment No. 98 is about making sure that if a foster parent is accused of an allegation they can continue to receive the fee, because in those circumstances the child will have been taken away from them so they are no longer entitled to the allowance. That is natural justice. It is about being innocent until proven guilty.
The possibility of an allegation being made against them is a constant fear for foster carers. Due to the nature of the children and young people placed with them, and the often fraught relationships between foster carers and birth parents, unfounded allegations are, sadly, a regular occurrence. An allegation is often used as a way of trying to break a placement, or is
due to a misunderstanding of everyday behaviour which, before the child entered care, had been a prelude to abuse. Surveys have shown that around a third of all foster carers will face an allegation during their fostering career, and the vast majority turn out to be unfounded.
Government timescales for the resolution of allegations, set out in the Working Together guidance, desirable though they are, are routinely being missed in allegation cases against foster carers. Working Together states that 80 per cent of allegations should be resolved in one month, 90 per cent should be resolved in three months and all cases should be resolved in a year. Research by Swain in 2006 has shown that 50 per cent of allegation cases last longer than three months and one in 10 last longer than a year—in some cases several years. To compound matters, in a third of all allegation cases where some or all children have been removed—which is really the de facto suspension of that foster carer from their job—almost all foster carers have their fostering income cut, and 46 per cent have their income stopped completely.
Research has also shown that 60 per cent of foster carers facing allegations are not receiving the access to independent support during an allegation that they desperately need and which they are required to receive under the current national minimum standards for fostering services. The amendment would protect foster carers from the immense financial hardship that can accompany an allegation investigation, and it would give local authorities greater incentive to resolve investigations within an acceptable timescale.
If they are continuing to have to pay the very small fees that some foster carers get, it certainly makes it a very good thing that they speed up their investigations. We really need to keep these foster carers, and if there is an ongoing case against an innocent person, for all the reasons that I have outlined, they will obviously have lost the allowance because they have lost the child. If they lose the fee as well, they will have to get another job.
We are desperately short of foster parents, and we are paying them only a very small amount. It is against natural justice that they should be seen as guilty because their retention fee—as I would call it—has been taken away from them while the allegation is heard. If we can reach the target of 80 per cent resolved within a month, the payments that we are talking about will be very small. I hope that the Minister will be able to reassure me that we will not lose a lot of foster carers because of financial expediency—they have no income and have to get another job. We will lose them, and that would be extremely sad. Amendment No. 98 would be possible if the split sought by the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, were put into place. I beg to move.
Source: Hansard
Soaring numbers of teachers are calling helplines for advice on how to cope after being “cyberbullied” on the internet by their pupils.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said that it now receives a call every day from teachers who say they have become victims. The problem was unheard of just two years ago.
Pupils are scouring the internet looking for embarrassing photographs of them. They also use chatrooms and networking sites, such as Facebook or Bebo, to share incriminating material or make vicious accusations about their tutors.
Union leaders are urging their members to be cautious about content and ease of access to material they put on the internet. Many teachers have Facebook pages on which they share photographs of holidays or nights out with friends.
The caution comes after a teacher who allegedly appeared in a provocative advert was suspended from her job at an independent school, Stockport Grammar School. Her pupils found the advertisement, for construction workers’ clothes, on the internet. It shows three women simulating sex acts with three workers. One of them, allegedly the teacher, is shown apparently having sex on a desk. The video has been viewed thousands of times on a website.
It emerged this week that students at the University of Bradford used Facebook to criticise a lecturer.
They created a page entitled “Annie Smith is S***”, Times Higher Education reported. The webpage listed grievances about the woman along with a number of abusive comments. Dr Smith said: “Lecturers are finding that there is a big change in the way that students behave. They are becoming more aggressive.”
Bob Carstairs, assistant general secretary of the ASCL, assists with a helpline. He said: “One of the most commonly reported problems is pupils being extremely rude about teachers on the internet. The advice we give heads is to ignore it and get on with your life, unless the material is sexual or violent.”
One head teacher contacted the helpline after his pupils created a page on Bebo that said he became aroused by beating children. Husband and wife teachers had allegations about their sex life placed on a website by pupils.
Another teacher contacted her union after a disgruntled former boyfriend put intimate footage of them on the internet, which she did not know had been filmed. She became aware of this when her pupils found it and told her. A spokeswoman for the Association of Teachers and Lecturers said: “It made things very awkward with her pupils.”
A survey by the Teacher Support Network found 17 per cent of teachers had suffered cyberbullying. Pupils were responsible in more than a third of cases. A spokesman for the Department of Children, Schools and Families said: “We have issued clear guidance on cyberbullying. Teachers can now confiscate phones and control computer access and usage in the classroom.”
Source: Times
Suspects Found Dead
Posted by News Editor
Monday, January 21, 2008
Two men suspected over allegations of child abuse after a police operation in Hampshire have been found dead. Anthony Whitlock 54 is believed to have shot himself in the head in a remote part of the New forest after being told that the police wanted to question him. Kenneth Milton was found dead at his home in Ventnor Court Southampton. He was one of ten peole who were due to stand trial after allegations of abuse in the 1970's and 1980's
Source: Times Saturday 19th January
A frail grandfather killed himself after a woman he refused to lend money to accused him of rape in revenge, an inquest heard.James Bamber, who was 82 and had prostate cancer, was "highly unlikely" to have been physically capable of having sex or attacking the woman.
But after she complained he raped her, Mr Bamber was interviewed by the police and complained of receiving threats by her friends.
He later barricaded himself into his home to escape his tormentors.
Finally, in despair, and with no news on whether he would face charges, the retired businessman walked into the sea near his home and drowned.
A coroner attacked the anonymous woman who made the rape claim, while Mr Bamber's family demanded to know why he hadn't been cleared sooner.
The divorced father of two ran a shellfish restaurant in Blackpool before retiring at the resort.
He was very weak but in May last year he was accused of raping a 60-year-old woman.
Mr Bamber later told a friend, Rodney Ford, that the woman had invited him into her house for a drink and told him of her financial difficulties.
He offered to lend her money and after more drinks they "began fumbling about," Mr Ford said in a statement to the inquest in Blackpool.
The next day, Mr Bamber decided to retract his offer of a loan.
He then allegedly received a threatening phone call from a friend of the woman and believed he was being followed on other occasions.
"On arrival at his house I found he had barricaded his front door shut using a stepladder," Mr Ford said.
"He went on to explain he was being accused of raping a woman he was friendly with."
Mr Bamber's body was spotted in the sea at Blackpool's South Shore just before midday on May 17 by a man walking his dog.
Detective Sergeant Chris Williams, of Blackpool Police, told the hearing that Mr Bamber had been interviewed under caution over the rape claim.
However, no decision on charges had been made at the time of his death.
Mr Bamber's 54-year-old son Edward, who lives in the U.S. state of Michigan, told the inquest his father walked with a stick and needed help getting in and out of the bath.
"Everybody who knew him would know it was a lie, a set-up," he said.
"It was physically impossible."
He said the threat of prosecution ought to have been dropped sooner.
Blackpool coroner Anne Hind said: "It seems highly unlikely given his state of health that he was capable of raping this lady but that was the allegation she subsequently made and she made that allegation in the cold light of day when he decided to withdraw his financial help.
"This wasn't news she took well and it seemed likely she decided to take her revenge in the cruellest way possible.
"He was in fear for his life.
"He barricaded himself in his house and kept weapons at his front door to defend himself."
Recording a verdict of suicide, she said he "couldn't countenance" what the future might have held and took his own life to "save embarrassment for his family" and to "escape those people who threatened him".
Mr Bamber's family declined to comment.
Source: This is London
A new prison website has been launced by Mike Leach. It provides a newspapers called CONVERSE, a forum, and a wealth of useful information.
The site (here) is described as the definitive independent web site dedicated to authoritative, balanced, and informed coverage of the penal system of England and Wales - whether your interest in prisons is personal, educational or professional, prisons.org.uk is the place to be.
For well over a decade Prisons.org.uk Limited has published the major prison publications for the penal system of England and Wales - The (annual) Prisons Handbook; the (quarterly) Prisoners' Pocket Directory; and our (monthly) Converse newspaper. In addition we operate the Institute of Prison Law which is authorised by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority and Bar Standards Board to deliver prison law training in England and Wales.
A Hull teenager who falsely accused a taxi driver of rape has been jailed after the man proved his innocence by producing a recorded conversation of her repeatedly asking him for sex.
Seonad Campbell, who has three A levels and hoped to go to university, ordered a taxi after becoming drunk at a party three weeks after her 18th birthday. When she arrived at 4am at her family home in East Cowick, near Goole, East Yorkshire, she told her father that she had been raped. He immediately contacted the police.
The driver was able to establish his innocence when it emerged that he had used his mobile phone to make a video recording of Campbell during their journey from Pontefract, West Yorkshire. The footage showed the teenager repeatedly asking the driver to have sex with her. He said that he had agreed to her request and the couple had consensual sex in a lane near her home.
In court she pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and was jailed for eight months by Judge Roger Thorn, QC, who told Campbell that her lies might have had devastating consequences.
Source: The Times
A man who falsely claimed he had been raped as a schoolboy sparked a four month police investigation before admitting he had made up allegations.
Sajid Bharucha, aged 21, of Leach Street, Bolton told officers that when he was 13 a man had offered him a lift home from school but then had taken him home, tied him to a bed and raped him before dropping him back off at school.
He claimed the rape had been repeated when he was 16-years-old.
But at Bolton Crown Court, sitting at Bury Magistartes' Court today he pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice ....
Warning Bharucha that he had narrowly escaped jail, Mr Recorder Corless sentenced him to a 12 month community order with supervision.
Source: Bolton News
New website for Families Implicated in False Allegations of Abuse. The organiser says:-
My family and I have been through the mill in the last year when my step daughter accused me of abuse of a sexual nature these allegations are totally untrue but it still rips your life apart, social service investigating every move, the police (CPU) raiding your home etc. Along the road to hell we have gained a lot of knowledge and found many others in the same situation. Together we can help each other, and one day hopefully raise awareness of the growing numbers of these cases.
A jury foreman has voiced doubts that a childminder jailed for shaking an 11-month old baby to death was guilty.
Keran Henderson, 43, of Iver Heath, Bucks, was jailed for three years for the manslaughter of Maeve Sheppard on a verdict based on a 10-2 majority.
The foreman, who cannot be named, said the verdict was not safe and that juries needed to be better trained.
In December another juror in the Henderson trial said a "miscarriage of justice had occurred".
Maeve, whose parents, Ruth and Mark, live in Slough, Berks, was taken unconscious to hospital in 2005 from Henderson's home where she was being looked after.
The court had heard from experts who said injuries were caused by the baby's neck being violently snapped back and forth.
The foreman said he wanted to see a change in the law to help future juries tackle complex trial arguments.
He said: "They hadn't got a case, really. I think for a case you want a body, a perpetrator, a witness and a motive.
"We have a body, we have a possible perpetrator. Have we a motive? A soiled nappy? I don't think so, not for a trained and experienced childminder. Witnesses? Not one. No case.
"And so they put up a case with experts."
The foreman said that if one "followed the path the prosecution took" it was "just about impossible" not to arrive at a guilty verdict.
But to do that, he added, "You need to accept that their case is a good one - and I don't".
The jury foreman said he wanted to approach the Law Lords to see if it was possible to "not just change this case but change the whole way that the court hearing the trial was put together.
"The way it was set up is stacked against not just the accused but against the jury itself. I don't think either of us had a chance."
Knowledge and understanding
This, he said, was because of the amount of complex medical terminology being used.
"We had an awful lot of novel information, a whole new vocabulary to learn, and that makes it difficult.
"When you take on six weeks' worth of new vocabulary, which you barely understand the meaning of and are having difficulty pronouncing, what you don't have is understanding.
"If you compare that with the lawyers and the medics who are dealing in their own fields - they have knowledge, they have understanding.
"At the end of the case the jury has got to be the judge, because it is they who make the decision.
"I don't think you can do it with just knowledge and not understanding.
"I think you need a specialised jury, that is not trained in medics, not trained in the law, but is trained in the methods of thinking its way through.
"In other words, it's philosophically trained, that's all it needs to be, but it does need to be that because without it you're not going to get safe verdicts and that's what happened in this case."
Another juror had previously told the BBC that the medical evidence in the case was too complicated for jurors to assess.
She said: "I believe that a miscarriage of justice has occurred and there's nothing I can do about it.
"I don't think you can get a fair outcome.
"I will never know as long as I live whether the verdict was right or not because I haven't, we haven't, got all this medical expertise, and I think if the medics can't even decide between themselves, what chance do we have?"
'Matter for the judge'
A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said the department cannot comment on specific cases.
"The conduct of the trial is a matter for the judge," she said.
"It is their role to interpret the law for the jury and to provide directions for the jury when summing up so that they are appropriately equipped for their deliberations.
If the jury are in any doubt about the evidence or about the judge's instructions, they can send a note to the judge who will give them any help that he can.
The presentation of the case for the prosecution is a matter for the Crown Prosecution Service (Attorney General)."
Source: BBC
Provincial opposition parties and legal groups are calling for a review of roughly 200 investigations into child deaths.
Indications of potential problems with these cases have only come to light at the Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario, which resumes public hearings Monday after the Christmas break.
The inquiry is looking at mistakes made by pathologist Dr. Charles Smith in 20 child deaths in which people were criminally convicted or charged.
But there are concerns that other pathologists also made errors, resulting in wrongful convictions (more)
We understand that the BBC are planning to do an expose on alleged historical abuse in children's homes in the Portsmouth area in in the late 1970s and 1980's. The programme is due for screening in March or April.
If you have been interviewed by the poloice or by the Press, or visited by any complantants in respect of this investigation we would like to hear from you.
The West Australian Government has announced a $114m compensation program for children abused while in state care.
Premier Alan Carpenter estimates 9000 to 10,000 people may be eligible for payments under the scheme, including members of the stolen generation, migrant children and children placed into foster care or state institutions prior to March 2006.
People have one year from May next year to apply for compensation.
Victims of abuse or neglect would receive an ex-gratia payment of up to $10,000, or up to $80,000 if there was evidence they suffered physical or psychological harm.
They would also receive an official apology from the state government, but would no longer be able to pursue civil litigation against the state through the court.
Mr Carpenter today apologised to all children who had been abused while in state care.
"To those people who were abused as children through the stolen generation, through child migrant schemes and through a failure of the state to protect them as children in care, we unreservedly apologise to them and hope we can, through this method, seek to re-address some of the pain they have suffered," the Premier said.
The WA Parliament has previously apologised to members of the stolen generation.
Source: NewsCom.Au
Comment:
This news follows on from news that the man announced as Tasmania's commissioner for children has withdrawn from the job amid allegations of physical abuse at a boys' home.
Dennis Daniels's appointment as interim commissioner was announced by Human Services Minister Lara Giddings on Wednesday, but on Thursday night, the former senior bureaucrat withdrew from the job.
The Weekend Australian has obtained a statutory declaration by a former resident of Wybra Hall boys' home alleging Mr Daniels was "one of the principal perpetrators of physical abuse against the boys" in the early 1960s......
...... descriptions of abuse are supported by the 2004 findings of the Tasmanian Ombudsman, who took evidence in camera from 46 men who alleged they had been abused as boys at Wybra.
The Ombudsman's report, which did not mention names of alleged victims or offenders, found many witnesses remembered boys being "commonly" forced to fight one another as punishment, while those who refused were beaten by staff.
Opposition parties questioned Ms Giddings's judgment and the apparent failure to cross-match applicants for commissioner with the Ombudsman's investigation into child abuse.
Ms Giddings apologised to abuse victims but warned against "trial by media" of Mr Daniels. "I understand the distress of victims of child abuse, and I am very sorry that they have been caused further distress," she said.
Full Story:
A brand new monthly prisons newspaper called ConVERSE has been launched. It will concentrate largely prison law and on legal issues surrounding prisons, bringing an honesty and transparency to prison publishing that has hitherto been missing - first edition published on 5th December 2007, when 50,000 copies will be distributed to prisons.
ConVerse is published by Spyhole Press
The Court of Appeal stated that it would not normally be sufficient for the police merely to caution the maker of a false allegation of serious sexual crime.
The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, so stated when allowing an appeal by David Carrington-Jones, on a reference by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, against his conviction on December 15, 2000 at Lewes Crown Court (Judge Richard Brown and a jury) of four counts of rape and four counts of indecent assault against two sisters for which he was imprisoned for a total of ten years.
Mr Jonathan Cooper, assigned by the Registrar of Criminal Appeals, for the appellant; Mr Warwick Tatford for the Crown.
THE PRESIDENT, giving the judgment of the court, said that, after the appellant’s trial, events in 2001, 2002 and 2004 demonstrated that the older complainant had a proven tendency to make false allegations that she had been a victim of sexual crime. Then in 2006 she admitted that she had fabricated allegations of rape against her stepfather because she did not like him and, as a result, she received a police caution for wasting police time.
The complainant’s credibility had thus been damaged beyond repair and the new evidence had had a direct impact on the way that allegations made by her younger sister would have been viewed by the jury.
Their Lordships said that although no one doubted that victims of rape had to be treated with every possible consideration by the criminal justice system, a false allegation could have dreadful consequences for an innocent man who had not perpetrated the crime.
Also, every occasion of a proved false allegation had an insidious effect on public confidence in the truth of genuine complaints, sometimes allowing doubt to creep in where none should exist.
There would not be many cases where the offence of attempting to pervert the course of justice, on the basis of a false allegation of rape, should not be prosecuted for what it was.
Solicitors: Crown Prosecution Service, Lewes
Source: The Times 1st January 2008
Court of Appeal, Criminal Division
Published January 1, 2008
Regina v Carrington-Jones
Before Sir Igor Judge, President, Mr Justice Pitchford and Sir Richard Curtis
Judgment October 16, 2007
SAFARI
Posted by News Editor
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
The 50th edition (January 2008) of SAFARI can now be downloaded (
here).
A man wrongly jailed when a woman cried rape has failed to prevent being charged £12,500 for his "board and lodging" while in prison.
Warren Blackwell, 38, spent three years in jail as a convicted sex attacker until his 'victim' was unmasked as a fantasist.
It was revealed he has been awarded £252,500 compensation for his lost years - but minus the estimated cost of his food and accommodation while behind bars.
Mr Blackwell said he had failed to stop the money being siphoned off after his lawyer told him there was little to be done about it.
The father-of-two, said: "It's the principle of the thing. They slam you in jail for three years and four months, brand you a sex attacker, leave your family to cope without you, then turn around and say sorry but demand £12,500 for living expenses incurred during your time inside.
"I tried to fight against it but my solicitor says the only hope of overturning the decision would be to go all the way to the European Court of Human Rights. I would probably use up all the compensation money on legal fees if I did that."
Mr Blackwell was jailed on the word of a woman who claims he seized her at knifepoint outside a village club early on New Year's Day 1999, marched her down an alleyway and indecently assaulted her.
She picked him out of an identity parade and a jury found him guilty, even though there was no forensic evidence and he had no previous convictions.
His wife Tanya never doubted him and an investigation by the Criminal Cases Review Commission later discovered that his accuser had invented the story.
Not only did Mr Blackwell not commit the crime, but the crime had never taken place.
It also emerged she was a serial accuser, having fabricated at least seven other allegations of sexual and physical assault against blameless men.
She kept changing her name and moving around, so police forces never realised they were dealing with the same woman.
Mr Blackwell, of Woodford Halse, Northamptonshire, was dramatically cleared at the Appeal Court in 2005, and lodged a formal bid for compensation.
It was accepted by the Government, but left to an assessor to calculate the actual amount. The assessor has now estimated that the portion of Mr Blackwell's compensation for loss of earnings - put at just over £70,000 - should be cut by 20 per cent to cover his "living expenses."
But Mr Blackwell said: "If murderers and robbers don't get charged for their time in the clanger, how come an innocent man does? It doesn't make sense and it is plain discrimination."
His solicitor, Robert Berg, said: "The adjudicator made a fair award of compensation for the suffering caused in this miscarriage of justice, however it is very unfair to charge him board and lodging.
"It is illogical that someone should have to pay for a punishment - which prison is - that should never have been given in the first place.
"Even though he was in prison, it doesn't mean there were no living expenses at his home. His family was still there, having to feed themselves and manage the home.
"So they cooked one less pork chop because he wasn't there - it's hardly a great saving, is it?"
The practice of charging "bed and breakfast" was challenged in 2007 by the Bridgewater Three, the men wrongly convicted of murdering newspaper boy Carl Bridgewater in 1978, but the principle was upheld by the House of Lords.
Source: