FACT

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 […]

An article on The Justice Gap website gives an interesting insight into the mind of Danny Day who falsely accused a fireman Dave Bryant of raping him three decades earlier. Dave Bryant was convicted in 2013 and sent to prison. His case was quashed on appeal in 2016. Shortly after his release his wife Lynn […]

The Oxford University research paper ‘The Impact of Being Wrongly Accused of Abuse in Occupations of Trust: Victim’s Voices’ describes the terrible suffering of the falsely accused and their friends and family. The effects of a wrongful allegation are long lasting or even life-long. With this in mind I wanted to find out how people […]

The Home Office are once again reviewing the operation of police bail, after the changes brought about under the 2017 Policing and Crime Act have raised disquiet in various quarters. From the point of view of FACT and the falsely accused, our main concern is that many of our members, after arrest, are left in […]

Most members of FACT will be only too aware that Simon Warr recently died following a rapidly progressive illness. Simon was a highly valued member of our committee who was vocal in his support for the falsely accused. He courageously spoke up for our plight on radio and television and in his blog ‘The Warr […]

A police officer was sentenced to three years in prison for perverting the course of justice. According to Sky News Senior Crown Prosecutor David Davies said “Hitesh Lakhani called 101 alleging he had witnessed a sexual assault that he knew did not happen. This was a spiteful act over a disagreement about hedge trimmings in […]

A doctor who was wrongfully accused of sexual assault of a female patient had his conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal last week. He had already served his full prison sentence and been struck off the medical register. While he was in prison his family instructed a new legal team who uncovered fresh evidence […]

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 […]