Police didn't collect key evidence

[Ever]

Hi. Bad times.

The background to my case is the trial is booked for next year, two years after the allegation was made. The police did nothing for the first six months, and despite repeatedly telling me 'all of the evidence shows you're innocent' it went to the CPS and my life has been wrecked. I doubt i'll ever work in my chosen career again. I lost my job after a year on suspension.

I'm pretty confident there won't be a miscarriage of justice, as the key elements are:

Allegation is 'she was drugged'. Toxicology shows she was not drugged. Not even drunk.
Allegation is 'there was no previous sexual contact'. Lots of text messages between us show that we had a normal boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, including sexual contact.

My barrister is almost bemused as to why this has gone to court; not only is it clearly vindictive and proveably untrue, but also the policeman who took over the investigation six months in intimated to both myself and my solicitors that there would be no charge. The only explanation seems to be what he said to me when it went to the CPS: 'its only gone to the CPS as we have to cover our backs as to why it's taken a year to investigate it'.

My question is, having now had the full disclosure stuff, it specifically states that key parts of evidence have not been collected, one part is even noted with something along the lines of 'we should have collected this evidence, it was a mistake not to'. Basically the missing evidence is CCTV that would show that my accuser was not 'totally out of it having been drugged' and a witness statement from somebody who would have confirmed she was chatting to him with absolutely no problems. They didnt even attempt to find this witness until after six months, and there's no way that this person would remember a one-off person behaving normally.

I've just found this forum tonight while pondering how this missing evidence may effect the case. Anyone have any insights here? Thx.

[Shah]

Someone with greater knowledge than me will eventually offer you help on here.

Im very sorry this had happened to you as yet again people do things that destroy other peoples lives.
As for me I will never ever trust the police in anything.

Sorry not much help I know

x

[innocentson]

Hi
Sorry you have found yourself here & I've only just seen your post

Only in the site intermittently due to Xmas hectic catch up prep ..... Our son got a unanimous NG on 1st December .... Up till then I'd pretty much ignored Xmas (and everything else) due to trauma of the whole process...

Anyway ; key point for us was cctv ; police said they had it (in unused evidence list). But they wouldn't release it... We had to take them to court (under section 8) to get them to release it .... Long story but this resulted in them having to admit they had "lost" it.... Other stuff emerged then that they had (but hidden) eg her phone records, notes of cctv which aligned to our sons case, her withdrawal statement & the "lost" dna etc etc

We also went down abuse of process route to have the trial stopped and although the judge didn't support it (we gather because cps routinely appeal anyway & it sets the ball rolling again). The judge made significant facts known to the jury about above & shoddiness of OiC .... However, had the trial result gone the other way, our barrister told us that the abuse or process stuff would have been an appeal route , if we needed it.

Ask your legal team about abuse if process option and/ or section 8 request for cctv

Hope this helps & very best wishes .... Stay strong & don't let them ruin your health in the interim

[Rights Fighter]

The police often are not interested in checking out evidence that might help the defence. Some of us have know the police to actively hide it. The police are not your friend.

Whatever evidence you might have, do not mention to the police from now on as they may well go to the complainant who will change his or her story to fit.

[Ever]

Thanks all

Rightsfighter thanks. Yep - after my entire life has been spent never being in any trouble at all i'm now firmly of the opinion that the police are **** and don't support the innocent at all. I've not had any contact with them for a long time, it also reads on the CPS file as if they haven't included the evidence that shows how ludicrous this accusation is, hence the decision to charge. I'll continue to deal just with my barrister then!

Innocentson thanks so much for that, there are clear parallels to what i'm experiencing, that's brilliant to read.

Happy new year all.

[YearsOfHell]

Rightsfighter thanks. Yep - after my entire life has been spent never being in any trouble at all i'm now firmly of the opinion that the police are **** and don't support the innocent at all. I've not had any contact with them for a long time, it also reads on the CPS file as if they haven't included the evidence that shows how ludicrous this accusation is, hence the decision to charge. I'll continue to deal just with my barrister then!

Innocentson thanks so much for that, there are clear parallels to what i'm experiencing, that's brilliant to read.

Happy new year all.

It's so true, they don't give any defence evidence to CPS.
I was involved in a case (not rape/sexual assault related) where there was an altercation in a public place, lots of witnesses.
The police spoke to many of the people there but the alleged "victim" claimed to have been assaulted.
I was a witness and told the police that there was at least 6 feet between the 2 people during the argument so that wasn't possible. 13 people said the same thing.

However, the "victim" got his wife and his 2 friends who were with him to say he was punched.
Amazingly the police only sent these 4 statements to the CPS.

The other 13 were never even put in writing!!

The jury will hear the defence when the case reaches crown court.
That's when the case falls apart!
Keep strong, and believe that the truth will out!

Have a good new year.

Best of luck
YoH

[Staystrong1]

Echo whats been said

Hi Ever

Just to echo whats being said. OH found NG unanimous a few months ago. He too had an abuse of process application and although not succesful( they rarely are). It greatly helped case, the devil,is in the detail and it is imperative that you and your defence team collect all the evidence for your defence at trial. That Is as has been said when it will,fall,apart. The police dont investigate these cases properly as with other crimes, they are supposed to prove or disprove. They just take the workd of FA and bulid case against you. Fortunately. We were able to uncover evidence to prove absolute lies so dont lose heart and be ready for trial. Your defence team is crucial. Wishing you all the best and sending positivity to you for the new year.x

[Shah]

Staystrong,

I so wish I had known those words begining of the year....... shame there is not a crying emotion x

[Rights Fighter]

I'm pretty confident there won't be a miscarriage of justice, as the key elements are:

Allegation is 'she was drugged'. Toxicology shows she was not drugged. Not even drunk.
Allegation is 'there was no previous sexual contact'. Lots of text messages between us show that we had a normal boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, including sexual contact.

Some "date rape" drugs do not show any trace as they don't stay in the body for long.

The text messages will help of course. Hopefully you have confidence in your solicitor and barrister.

[Ever]

Hopefully the 'untraceable date rape drug' won't come into play, as the allegation specifically involved a medication that I have on prescription, which bizarrely has no drowsiness/knocking out type of effect - I really don't understand that part of the allegation, two mins googling the drug would have shown that it can't be misused in this way - surely the police would have done this, but no...

V. Confident with the barrister, I googled their previous stuff asap when assigned and what i've read was great. The barrister seems geniunely supportive and interested at this point, as per YearsOfHell /\ it does really seem that if the oic had passed on any of the evidence things would be very different right now. The only defence stalling point seems to be finding a reason why the accuser is doing this. Thats something I really have no idea about unfortunately.

Only a few months to go though.

Ironically the business I set up after this accusation was made is doing brilliantly, so everything else in my life is more or less good. Well, passable anyway, its still basically **** to be a dcent person put in this position.

Thanks all 👍

[Tony1]

My false accuser tested positive for cocaine - not the type of drug that makes you unconscious.
We have instructed a toxicologist expert for court to explain this to the jury.

[FalseRapeEpidemic]

Story so similar

Hi Ever

I've just been reading your story. It is so very similar to our own. My OH had never been in trouble before and we naively believed in the justice system and unfortunately, the police. We also had a legal aid barrister who said all the right things in conference but then turned up at court and could not have cared less. In fact the conference 'notes' which were provided as part of a complaint had nothing in them except '2 + 2' (2 hours travelling, two hours conference). No wonder she could not remember anything in court.

Now we have records of the log it is clear that the IOC had no intention of 'investigating' anything and in fact, like many cases on here, appears to have gone to quite some effort to bury, lose or 'accidentally' not disclose information useful to the defence. This seems to be such common practice amongst the police that it is safer to assume that the IOC is trying their best to fit you up, so be suspicious of everything they say and do. They are as much your enemy as the FA, perhaps even more so.

You will most likely not want to name the police force dealing with your case on here but if it's WYP then please PM me as I have information that could be very useful to you.

[slowdown73]

Sorry to hear your situation. Unfortunately, the Police are only interested in acquiring so called evidence which supports the allegation. They will dismiss anything which doesn't. It sounds like it might be one of those cases whereby they want a jury to decide. Your solicitor should write to the CPS/Police asking them to outline how the case has met the legal threshold of charging when key evidence has not been collected.

[innocentson]

Hi Ever
Hope things are going as well as they can for you ? Keep us posted as your experience seems very similar to our sons eg lost, missing and hidden evidence. Ours ended in the right NG result in December , so hoping same for you

Falserapeepidemic ; I'll pm you too if I may ? As our case was also in WYP too and I'm still shocked at the level of incompetence (if I'm being nice) / Corruption (if I'm being honest) that we encountered by the OIC and his seniors who guided him to build a case for the so called "victim" .... Previously we were typically good, honest people who had NO experience of the police & cps and believed in them / the system. What a wake up call. I'm still toying with the idea of complaint process , hence interested in any info you have

thanks

[innocentson]

Sorry to hear your situation. Unfortunately, the Police are only interested in acquiring so called evidence which supports the allegation. They will dismiss anything which doesn't. It sounds like it might be one of those cases whereby they want a jury to decide. Your solicitor should write to the CPS/Police asking them to outline how the case has met the legal threshold of charging when key evidence has not been collected.

Hi. That sounds Like a good idea ..... Wish we had thought of that , although not sure it would have worked for us , as they seem hell bent on pushing things into court for juries to decide. And it was only at court that our barrister uncovered through cross examination of the OIC that he had evidence hidden in cold case file that disproved the Lying "so called victims" account & notes of cctv evidence, again confirming our sons innocence etc etc

Worth trying everything though I think. : good luck