What does provably false mean in respect of perverting the course of justice

[floyd honeybuns]

I was falsely accused a few years ago and after some time on police bail the CPS NFA'd it.

This year a couple of witnesses have come forward to me to say that they are willing to provide witness statements that the accuser tried to pressure them into making false or exaggerated statements to the police supporting the accuser.

Would this, together with an account of events from the accuser that varies a lot from her original report be enough to interest the police and CPS in pushing a charge of perverting the course of justice? There are 3 witnesses who will say that she asked them to lie and 2 witnesses who will provide other evidence that she is a compulsive liar.

Also in related family proceedings from 2014 there is a statement from CAFCASS contradicting what she claims social services and teachers have said. She lied/misrepresented them.

Does that fall short of the "provably false" standard?

[Pond31]

In both my cases the FA's lied to the police and the police eventually discovered this but took no action. To get them to actually open a case you have to have hard evidence, witness statements may be helpful but the police most likely will not accept them as proof. The police will excuse errors in her story by saying "she was confused" or "was just mistaken" or "was under stress".

If you are able to get your witnesses to get her to confirm what she said to them somehow, that may help. If they have text or Facebook messages of her asking them then that would be great but if all they have is their word against hers, it will be hard to get the police to do anything. Oh btw you have to go via the OIC who worked on your case as that is were the perverting the course of justice happened.

To confirm your understanding, to be guilty of perverting the course of justice her "act or acts" have to be "deliberate" and designed to "pervert the course of justice". So un-deliberate acts don't count.

In one of my cases I gave the OIC two recordings of the FA confirming that the sexual assaults I was arrested for were consensual. You think this would be hard enough evidence but NO the OIC said that they were not good enough as she did not know the "background of the calls" and that I had used "controlling language in them". She didn't bother to contact me to confirm the background of the calls or talk about the tone I used, she simply said that the evidence wasn't good enough. So this is the type of action you get from the police.

I have something brewing, concerning the FA perverting the course of justice. I shall keep the lid on it until it is over.

Pond31

[Peter1975]

Just to add my tuppence worth to Pond's excellent response,

Trying to persuade someone to lie on your behalf IS an attempt to pervert the course of justice but as always, I will urge you to look at things in the third person and from a genuine victims point of view,

These cases are generally one word against another 90% of the time, many genuine victims don't bother to report the crimes to the police as they don't feel as though they can prove it and have no wish to relive the ordeal if there is no guarantee of justice at the end of it.

So the genuine victim, fearful that they won't be believed tries to persuade a friend to help them convince the authorities, perhaps they also fib about how much they had to drink or deny that there was consensual activity before the attack.... it doesn't prove that they are lying about the crime and all of these things are taken into account.

I won't disagree that the system seems biased in favour of the accuser, which a FA will take full advantage of, but, for balance, I can think of a case where the defendant denied having sex at all to the police, changing his story to consensual sex when DNA evidence proved otherwise - The judge will have explained to the jury that he might have lied out of fear and he was acquitted.

Clear as mud, right? I suggest trying to take some legal advice.

[floyd honeybuns]

Thanks both. I have nothing to lose now so I am going to contact 1 former friend and 1 current friend to see if they are willing to help and whether or not they have anything useful they are willing to share. The former friend I think I can trust.

With the current friend I have had some 3rd party gossip that she was pissed off at my false accuser because my FA took advantage of her when she was suffering depression and asked her to witness things that simply never happened. I think that this person is basically a decent person and my gut says there is nothing to lose by contacting her.

Other than that it is hopeless.

[floyd honeybuns]

One further thought. It was never explained to me by the CPS why they eventually dropped the case. I want to know what undermined her case. I never had disclosure of any evidence against her. Do think that it may be worth making some subject access requests or something like that.

[Pond31]

One further thought. It was never explained to me by the CPS why they eventually dropped the case. I want to know what undermined her case. I never had disclosure of any evidence against her. Do think that it may be worth making some subject access requests or something like that.

Hi Floyd

I asked my local force for information via a SAR in January. I was lucky because I spoke to a civilian staff member who was very helpful and advised me what I needed to ask etc. The time scale for a response is 30 days but unfortunately it has been well over 100 days and yet no reply as yet. I have phoned the police a few times and they come up with the same excuses, its in a queue, they are busy, they are short staffed. So if you do make a SAR, don't expect a quick response. Before you start your SAR, I would contact the relevant forces FOI or Data Protection department to confirm that they will actually answer you query. There is no point in you asking for information that they will not reveal to you, so ask if they will reveal it first.

Pond31

[Peter1975]

As far as I know, it is only the complainant that is entitled to an explanation of a decision not to charge so don't hold your breath.


There is certainly nothing to lose by making a SAR and it is often recommended but you will only be entitled to information about yourself.


Good luck