I cannot tell you how delighted I was to read your FREE exclusive by Richard Simcox. Dave Luxford was in HMP Belmarsh when I arrived there in 2001 and we immediately became friends. I decided very quickly he was one of the most decent, honourable and responsible men I’d ever met….The law in Britain allows allegations to go back without litnit (my initial accusations dated back to 1969). There is no need for proof, evidence or corroboration. The accuser is granted total anonymity forever, whatever the outcome, and rarely faces prosecution because the police are all too willing to ‘assist’ witness statements in order to bump up their conviction rates.

Many of the cases you report are travesties of justice. I quite understand you must reflect the law and the verdicts but this county, the county of Charles Dickens, is perfectly placed to dare to examine the unacceptable – that many accusations of rape or abuse are motivated by greed or revenge or a desire for attention or simply a way of allocating blame for failure on somebody else.

Juries DO make mistakes, judges DO get it wrong, police DO get tunnel vision, however well intentioned their motives may be. Dave’s case shows that. As do the numerous other quashed convictions. Gally Clark, Robert Brown, Angela Cannings, Stephen Downing, Basil Williams-Rigby, Michael Lawson, Martin Catlin … the list is growing daily…