The omnishambles that was a Church of England’s safeguarding investigation made Basil Fawlty’s hotel management skills look exemplary in comparison. But, unlike Fawlty Towers, this was no comedy. When a tiny smidgeon of concern, or more accurately, the rumour of a smidgeon of concern about Father Alan Griffin arose, the buck was passed from person […]

This is a very scary book. However, most people who read this book review on FACT website will already have some experience of how the legal system is malfunctioning. The Secret Barrister (a junior barrister specialising in criminal law and named Independent Blogger of the Year in 2016 and 2017) begins by tracing the history […]

Bishop George Bell (1883 – 1958) is famed for being one of the first to speak out against the dangers Hitler posed in the 1930s and for saving many lives during these years by guaranteeing refugees from Germany. He was one of the few to condemn our government’s obliteration bombing of German cities during the […]

In 2012, Cardiff became the first university innocence project in the UK to successfully have a case referred to the Court of Appeal after submission to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). Today, after almost ten years of investigative work by students and academics on dozens of cases in innocence projects in more than twenty […]

Why I’m queasy about this sex pest witchhunt and girls who dress to kill, by Anne Diamond In a frank and times disturbing article Anne Diamond  pours scorn on the behaviour of those teenage girls who in the past have fitted with celebrities and calls for those accused of sexual offences, particularly historical ones, to be […]

Our attention has been brought to a blog about the accusations made against Jimmy Saville.  You have to drill down to get the full picture but at first glance it seems to be a somewhat sceptical account of the allegations made. However it does provide a useful description of the context in which the allegations […]

The Independent Review of the Waterhouse Tribunal will today publish an Issues Paper calling for views on the scope of the original Inquiry and whether or not it sufficiently investigated specific allegations of child abuse in North Wales care homes. Commenting on the call for further evidence, Mrs Justice Macur said: ‘To ensure I can […]

There is no doubt that the Sir Jimmy Savile affair is both shocking and disturbing.  The truth however is that none of us know whether, or not, the allegations made against him are indeed all true, partly true/untrue or wholly untrue. If they are true (in whole or in part) they represent a major betrayal […]

Merger of Her Majesty’s Courts Service and the Tribunals Service The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the Ministry of Justice plans to bring together Her Majesty’s Courts Service and the Tribunals Service into a new, single organisation. Her Majesty’s Courts Service and the Tribunals Service between them provide the administration for the courts in […]

It would be reassuring to dismiss Shieldfield as a terrible aberration. The story of what happened to Dawn Reed and Chris Lillie is so bizarre that it might seem to be without parallel. But that would be to replace one delusion by another. On the day after the libel judgment, the Guardian newsdesk was contacted […]