In 2009 Mark Barlow and Mark Newby delivered their seminal paper on challenging past historical allegations of abuse at a conference which brought together all sides in the Criminal Justice System.

They are the guest speakers at our Autumn Conference and the title of their presentation will be “The last 10 years of historical abuse allegations a wasted decade in restoring balance in our justice system”.

Whether or not you are a member of FACT do come and join us. The wrongly accused and their friends and families find our conferences are a place where they can meet others in the same situation and gain greatly from the support they receive. Those working in the justice system have an opportunity to obtain insight into the experiences of the wrongly accused.

The conference is in Birmingham on 28th September.

Please contact Brian at factuksec@gmail.com to book your place.

Download the programme for the day here.

The Speakers

Mark Newby is a Solicitor Advocate admitted in 1993 and who has since 2001 been involved in miscarriage of justice work and defending false allegations of historical abuse.

He has been involved in a large number of historical care home appeals including the well reported cases of Sheikh and Joynson amongst many. He has also been involved in a large number of other successful appeals largely in historical cases but this has also included the well reported murder conviction of Ian Lawless and the case of Victor Nealon. He represents Victor Nealon in a challenge to the Governments Compensation Scheme for Miscarriages of Justice in Strasbourg.

He specialises in defending false allegations of historical abuse and has been involved in most of the major police enquiries most recently in the Operation Pallial Cases in North Wales.

Mark Barlow practices in both the English and Northern Irish jurisdiction mainly in criminal, human rights and appellant law. He was a founder member of Garden Court North Chambers and is a member of the Bar Library, Belfast. He is recognised as one of the leading junior counsel in complex historic allegations of sexual abuse, together with extensive experience of miscarriage cases in both England and Northern Ireland. He has been involved in a number of landmark decisions in the Court of Appeal involving historic care home appeals, most notably R v Joynson [2008] EWCA Crim 3049; R v Sheikh [2006] EWCA Crim 2625; R v Robson [2006] EWCA Crim 2754; R v Brizzalari [2004] EWCA Crim 310 and R v Basil Rigby Williams [2003] EWCA Crim 693. These cases concentrated upon the difficult area of whether a fair trial can be achieved given extensive delay in the criminal proceedings and the safeguarding of the rights of an accused.