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 […]
Posts tagged with "investigative practice Archives - FACT "
The Plight of Falsely Accused People Just Isn’t a Story Any Editor Dares to Tell
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 […]
New guidance for police investigating non recent sexual abuse offers little hope for the wrongfully accused
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 […]
Why you can’t always trust childhood memories
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 insight into the mind of a ‘chronic liar’?
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 […]
Police officer jailed for falsely accusing a man of sexual abuse of a child
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 […]
Why pre-charge anonymity is only fair; Ros Burnett
Ros Burnett, an academic linked to the Oxford University Criminology Department has written an article for the Justice Gap on the issue of anonymity until charge for those accused of sexual offences. Leaks to the press about allegations of sexual offences have seriously damaged the reputations, careers and safety of many famous people. For every […]
‘Believe the victim’; how the Met swallowed Nick’s tales hook line and sinker
The recent conviction of Carl Beech for perverting the course of justice has been long awaited, not only by the victims of his foul crime, but by the many, many others who have suffered the torture of being falsely accused of sexual abuse of children. The story of how his fabrications were swallowed hook line […]
In grateful memory of the late Richard Webster
Richard Webster was an investigative journalist, well loved by FACT members, who died in 2011 aged 60. Our chairman has written this tribute which is particularly pertinent as our 20th Anniversary approaches. Richard researched and wrote about many of the issues central to FACT’s work, he was very far sighted and I believe decades ahead […]