Underage rape charge

[brokenmum]

I am totally devastated earlier today my son was arrested and charged with rape, he is in year 10 at school the girl is in year 9
A brief breakdown of the situation is he was contacted by a girl and her friend at approx midnight they were walking the streets and had been drinking..he let the girl and friend into our home and they all eventually went into his room to sleep...I should add I was at home but sleeping it was approx 3am
He had sex with one of the girls she said she was asleep and didnt consent he denies this saying she was awake and he didnt force her in anyway.....her friend apparently slept through it all.He woke them up early at around 6.30 am telling them to leave before I got up because he knew I would go beserk they asked if they could stay another half an hour because it was too early to go home and he refused
When he went to school on Monday the girl was telling everyone he had raped her so he confronted her and she denied tellling people that....he sent her messages on his blackberry phone and in one of her replies she admitted she was awake. The girl also in other messages over the the course of a few days said the police were involved and had taken swabs from her given her a pregnancy test which was positive and she had had an abortion.This has all just happened in the last week
The police came to our home today arrested my son after asking him a few questions I asked for a duty solicitor.The solicitor said after talking to my son and myself she felt with him handing his phone over to the police with all the texts she didnt think it would go further but she couldnt forsee the future so not to take it as gospel.
I am sick to my stomach I have no idea what to expect can someone please please help me

[LS]

No DO NOT hand the phone over. Police will likely "lose it" and so far it's the only real evidence he has in his favour.

Take photos of the text, showing the message, the sender's phone number, date/time of sending,
Show THOSE to the police.

Hand the phone to a Solicitor for safe keeping. If the Solicitor you have is actually keen to give your only evidence to the police, then change Solicitor. Fast.
Rest assured, give that phone to plod and the chances of this matter going up a notch are greatly increased.

[brokenmum]

We handed the phone over at the time of his arrest, I thought this would help prove his innocence, what did you mean this could move things up a notch
As I said previously we used a duty solicitor I was hoping someone on here could offer help I need to find a good solicitor. Im based in Newcastle upon tyne.
Im so worried please respond

[Rights Fighter]

Gill Rutherford

Andrews Angel sols
2nd floor
41-42 Sadler Street
Durham County
County Durham
DH1 3NU

0191 370 9890

gillrutherford@andrewsangel.co.uk

[LS]

What I meant was that the phone has the only proof on it that things are as your son is maintaining.

So you give the phone to the police, and they conveniently lose it.
There is then nothing to stop them handing over the file papers of the accusation of rape, and bingo your son is charged with rape and on bail pending a court case. And you have given the only evidence you have, to the other side.

I'd keep fingers crossed and pray you've got an honest cop who isn't desperate for promotion and pay rises.

Always, always keep copies of what you give police - documents, texts, emails, photographs. Never give them the original if you haven't got copies. In the case of content held on phones, copy the content and give the copy to the police. Store the original (ie phone) safely elsewhere. If it can damage their case, don't bank on them taking care with it.

[brokenmum]

Can the phone either be handed over to a solicitor or would the solicitor be allowed to take copies or photos once the phone is in the hands of the police
I cant believe I may have lost my sons only proof I dont think I would be able to live with myself if that happened

[Rights Fighter]

You may find that a solicitor will not help until or if the suspect is charged. This is because there is no paperwork at this stage so no actual hands-on work for them to do. Some sols will assist without funding but some will expect to be paid.

The phone is now in the hands of the police and will probably be going for forensic examination so at the moment there is not much you can do about that.

Although the advice is to never hand over original evidence to the police - this is because some people have had evidence "go missing" once it has been handed over. I must stress that this is not as frequent as it sounds. It is a rarity but unfortunately, because some of us HAVE known the police to behave in this manner, this is why that advice is given.

Most officers will do the job properly. As with every other group of people, there are corrupt police officers in the same way as there are, for instance, corrupt school teachers. It's not a regular event but it happens.

[LS]

Sorry, I thought you had a solicitor on board but it's likely you probably had a phone call with a duty solicitor - as RF said no funding is usually paid to them until charging - so the option to "hand it to the solicitor" wasn't open to you at that time.

What's done is done, they'll send the phone off for it to be interrogated and for any data it holds to be copied and stored, so it won't be possible for the police to give it back. (If it did hold info against him, then it would be bagged up and need to be kept as evidence. For this reason it's pointless asking for the phone back, right now.)
Hopefully, once the info on it corroborates his story then the matter will be dropped.