FACT

FACT has known for a long time that the appeal system in England is failing those who have suffered the worst abuse the state can inflict on a citizen, a wrongful conviction. The catastrophic failure of justice that led to over 550 post office workers being wrongly accused of stealing may have been a shock […]

In 2017 FACT gave a questionnaire to its members who attended one of its conferences. The object was to glean ideas on how to cope with the terrible impact of being the object of a wrongful allegation of child abuse. The results of this questionnaire were distilled into a list of techniques and strategies that […]

The title is a quote from an article on Peter Joyce’s new website ‘Blackstone’s Drum‘. Blackstone (1723-1780) famously said “it is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.” This principle is said to have influenced the nineteenth-century development of “beyond a reasonable doubt” as the burden of proof in criminal law […]

Rosalie Burnett DPhil (University of Oxford) and Naomi-Ellen Speechley PhD (University of Manchester) have just published another important report on the experiences of those wrongfully accused of sexual abuse.

In the first chapter of her excellent book “Wrongful Allegations of Sexual and Child Abuse”, the editor Ros Burnett goes to some trouble to explain her use of the term “wrongful allegation” rather than “false allegation”. The word “false” in this context can easily be seen as a character attack on the person making the […]

Due to the ongoing Covid pandemic we are still not holding any public meetings. As soon as it is safe again, we hope to reinstate our regular conferences. Watch this space.

Fake Law: The Truth About Justice in an Age of Lies by The Secret Barrister ISBN-13: 978-1529009941 Publisher: Picador -3 Sept. 2020 Hard Cover: £13 – £20 As it states on the inside of the book jacket, ‘Thankfully, the Secret Barrister is back to reveal stupidity, malice and incompetence behind many of the biggest legal […]

Carl Beech is infamous for falsely accusing a number of high profile people of abuse, including Lord Brammal, Harvey Proctor, Lord Brittan, Edward Heath, Greville Janner and others. His barrister appealed on the basis that Mr Beech’s allegations did not result in anyone being charged. However Tony Badenoch QC, who was the prosecutor at Beech’s […]

In August the College of Policing published new guidance on the investigation of non recent sexual abuse. You can read the document here. While the updated guidance advises that police should gather all evidence both towards and away from the allegation, it is striking that the document contradicts this principle by its failure to even […]

Whether or not all memories are accurate is of vital importance to the wrongfully accused. This is particularly the case when the allegations are historical. In such cases, there will usually be no witnesses to the event described by the complainant, and no forensic evidence. Records made by the accused may well have been lost […]