A convicted murderer proved his innocence by investigating his own case from behind bars at a maximum-security prison and identifying the real killer. Roy Brown appeared before a judge last night to ask for a pardon after 16 years in jail for a crime he had proved conclusively that he did not commit.
Brown had always protested his innocence, denying that he stabbed and strangled a female social worker to death at a farmhouse in upstate New York in 1991, and he managed to investigate and solve the crime from his prison cell. Five days after he wrote a letter to the local fireman he had identified as the real murderer, the man killed himself by lying in front of an oncoming train.
Witnesses can commit perjury, judges can be fooled and juries can make mistakes,” wrote Brown. “When it comes to DNA testing, there’s no mistakes. DNA is God’s creation and God makes no mistakes.” (
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L.O.V.E. to Disband
Posted by News Editor
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
In a surprising and many ways sad development the Irish charity L.O.V.E (Let Our Voices Emerge) has announced its decision to disband. Its founder, Florence Horsman Hogan said "We now feel it’s time for us having made our point so successfully, to disband and move on with our lives. Our carers know they’re supported, they Irish public have been given the chance to hear the full story, and we can now do no more. The findings of the Ryan Commission, will come too late for all of those Institutions and religious personnel accused in the RIRB. The money now spent will burn holes of guilt through many pockets.
For us to carry on would be a pointless waste of energy and resources. Life is for living in the future, not being pulled back into the poisoned memories of so many people who believe just because they were in an Institution, life owes them something.
F.A.C.T would like to place on record its gratitude to L.O.V.E. for having the courage to confront injustice, and for challenging those who made exaggerated claims and false allegations rwegarding their stay in various religious instiutions in Ireland. In particular it would like to acknoweldge its admiration of its founder, Florence Horsman Hogan, work and courage during the recent years. She and her suuporters have made a major contribution in drawing the publics attention to the scandalous way the Irish Government and the Church have of have contibuted to the moral panic and general hysteria regarding allegations, which for the most part (althoughh not entirely) were untrue.
We wish Florence and her supporters a well earned rest and a peaceful New Year.
Dr Cleared of Rape
Posted by News Editor
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
A doctor has been cleared of raping two women in their flat after meeting them on a drunken night in a Brighton bar. Mark Rance, 31, of Dover Road in Worthing, West Sussex, had denied two counts of rape, maintaining the flatmates consented to sex with him.
A Lewes Crown Court jury acquitted him on Friday after deliberating for three hours at the end of a week-long trial. The court had heard Dr Rance met the teachers, X and Y, at the Karma bar in Brighton Marina on 10 September 2005.
Prosecutors said after they all returned to the flat, the women both woke up in their beds to find Dr Rance having sex with them. But the doctor, who was on a research fellowship at the Blond McIndoe Research Centre in East Grinstead, told the court neither objected.
He said he first had sex with X, then Y, in their separate bedrooms but neither was asleep at any time.
Afterwards he let himself out of the flat and went to spend the night on his speedboat.
On hearing the verdict, Dr Rance nodded in agreement. Judge Richard Brown told him: "You are free to go."
Outside the court, the doctor jogged away to avoid reporters' questions.
Source: BBC South
Happy Christmas
Posted by News Editor
Saturday, December 23, 2006
We would like to wish all our members, supporters and friends a very happy Christmas. We know that that for many of you Christamas will be a difficult time as you face separation from your famil. For other this Christamas compared with last year may be a time of extra rejoicing as return to the family fold. What ever you circumstances we hope that you will be able to enjoy Christmas as best as you can, and 2007 will be a just New year
SOFAP have started an online petition for reform in the way allegations of sexual abuse are dealt with.. The wording of the petition has been approved by the Number 10 web team, and is accessible here and
The petition reads:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to deal with the
issue of false allegations of sexual abuse in the following
manner:-
- Substitute financial compensation for therapy for genuinely
sexually abused negating primary motive of making false
allegations.
- Remove cases from conviction target rates.
- Deter adult false accusers ensure they serve the same time
as their victims did or would have done.
- False accusers to compensate their victim(s; if funds are
available in other forms pay towards the public purse cost of
prosecution and if applicable, HM Prison Service.
- Protect anonymity of accused unless convicted. If convicted
and still protesting innocence Press must print this.
- If a particular date of abuse is specified and the
defendant provides an alibi for that date, the CPS or Police
should not “move the goal posts” to ensure a conviction.
- If suspect requests lie detector test he should be given
one; if negative should be used at trial. Complainant should
also take the test if the defendant's proves to be negative.
The same applies the other way around.
Please support this petition and add your name. (You have to be a UK citizen to do so)
The father of a teenage chess prodigy who fell to her death from an eight-floor hotel window was cleared today of repeatedly raping her when she was a child.
Ian Gilbert, 49, denied his daughter Jessie's claims of rape saying that he thought she had made them up to get revenge after they fell out over a laptop computer.
Jessie, 19, died in July this year, when she fell from a window of a hotel in the Czech Republic during an international chess tournament in Prague. Just before she died she told police that her father had raped her between the ages of eight and 13.
Mr Gilbert, a director at the Royal Bank of Scotland, was cleared of all charges of rape on his daughter. The jury at Guildford Crown Court also cleared him of two counts of rape and four counts of indecent assault on other people, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
His solicitor, Colin Reynolds, said in a statement on his behalf: "Ian Gilbert fully cooperated with the police inquiry and has strenuously denied these allegations throughout and robustly defended this indictment.
"He is grateful to the jury for their obvious careful consideration of all the evidence and for returning appropriate verdicts which reflect the truth. He would ask you to respect his privacy as he now seeks to restore stability in his personal and professional life."
For more information see TIMES article here
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Heath has issued its Child Protection Companion. Rather disturbingly you won't find the phrase false allegation(s) - never the less it contains a lot of useful information, and sets down a useful benchmark for good practice. You can down the document
here
The following article by Richard Scorer appeared in the Guardian on 5th December.
We cannot close the book on historic cases of child abuse. The prosecution of abusers is an important part of their victims' healing process
The "witch hunt mentality" of those seeking justice for children alleging historic abuse in care makes miscarriages of justice inevitable, argues Fay Wertheimer (History revision, November 29). After 10 years of working as a lawyer on behalf of victims of child abuse, I don't recognise the picture she paints.
Every category of crime has its associated miscarriages of justice, and historic child abuse is no exception. Yet by far the greatest miscarriage is that 90% of victims of child abuse, historic or otherwise, will never see their abuser convicted. Child abuse allegations often take years to surface: abuse leads to shame, fear and silence. But contrary to Wertheimer's claims, this doesn't make it easier to convict the accused. It makes it harder - defendants argue that the truth has been lost in the mists of time. Wertheimer also conflates physical and sexual allegations, apparently believing that careworkers are being prosecuted for minor physical chastisements inflicted decades ago. Personally, I've come across very few prosecutions of care staff for physical assaults, and these have always involved serious abuse.
Is the "lure of lucre" a factor in false allegations, as Wertheimer suggests? Very occasionally, yes. But campaigners on behalf of the accused have been able to produce no more than a handful of false allegations linked to compensation. Which is hardly surprising: only around a quarter of complainants attempt to claim compensation, and many of those who do find their cases frustrated by archaic, irrational rules relating to the statute of limitations.
"Opening up the past may simply perpetuate an adult's past pain and prove destabilising rather than healing," says Wertheimer. That's sometimes true; but for the vast majority of the child abuse victims I've worked with over the last 10 years, the pain is ever-present, and the legal system's recognition of the harm done by abuse is part of the healing. Financial compensation can't guarantee happiness. Decent awards, however, can help a victim move away from victim status, as specialist therapy (rarely available on the NHS) can be accessed, and a support structure put in place.
Wertheimer writes movingly of the idealism and decency of careworkers - all too easily forgotten. But we also need to accord children in care the same humanity - Wertheimer comes dangerously close to stigmatising kids in care as so hopelessly damaged that, somehow, basic principles of justice and legal accountability should be abandoned.
The broader problem - and here Wertheimer might agree - is that as a society we are getting the balance wrong on child abuse and sexual crimes. We obsess over whether the Father Christmas at the school fete has been CRB checked, yet the rate of successful prosecution in cases of rape and child abuse remains shockingly low.
It's wrong that a teacher's career can be wrecked because of some trivial physical chastisement inflicted on a recalcitrant pupil; it's also wrong that most victims of child sexual abuse will never get justice.
We need to change this, and simply closing the book on the past is no way to do it.
Richard Scorer is a lawyer who has acted for victims of historic child abuse
Source: Guardian Online
There is an interesting comment from lawyers in the USA regarding the reported increase in child sex abuse cases which you can access here
Claire Curtis-Thomas (Crosby, Labour) | Hansard source
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the implications of the quashing ofthe Anver Sheikh case in the Court of Appeal on16 October for the quality of the case originally brought.
Gerry Sutcliffe (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office) | Hansard source
I cannot comment on individual cases, however, I am sure that the Crown Prosecution Service will consider carefully what the Court of Appeal says when the full judgment is published.
Since the Home Affairs Committee Report in 2002, much has been done to improve the way that investigations of historic child abuse are carried out. In particular, guidance from ACPO and the CPS has been developed and reflects lessons learned from the original investigations which took place in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Source: They Work For You
The following report by Brent Butcher appeared in the The Chronicle Herald, a Novia Scotia online newspaper on 3rd December.
Former school for boys workers get compensation
Wayne Butler has finally been compensated for being falsely branded a child molester more than a decade ago by the province of Nova Scotia.
He and 78 other former workers in provincial youth correction facilities started getting their share of a $5.5-million compensation package this week.
"It’s hard to believe this is over," Mr. Butler, who worked at the Shelburne School for Boys, said Wednesday. "It got to the point the money didn’t mean anything anymore, I just wanted closure."
Six months may seem like a long time, but not compared with the 11 years Mr. Butler says he hasn’t been able to go to work.
"I’m still on long-term disability because of post-traumatic stress disorder," said Mr. Butler. "Shortly after I got the sexual allegations, I just couldn’t work with the young offenders anymore. I’ve lost everything. Like, my career is gone, and it’s because of this."
Mr. Butler was one of hundreds of workers accused of sexual and physical abuse in the mid-1990s after the province launched a compensation program for victims of abuse in youth correctional facilities. More than 1,200 residents and former residents of the facilities claimed they’d been abused, and more than $30 million was paid out with little or no investigation into the claims.
Only one man was ever convicted of abusing boys at the facility where Butler worked. Patrick MacDougal, a youth counsellor, was found guilty in 1993 of sexually abusing five boys at the Shelburne school and later pleaded guilty to abusing five other boys.
Dale Dunlop, the lawyer who represented the 79 workers, said the compensation program branded his clients as criminals.
"The province, when it started the compensation program, for some reason didn’t seem to realize that . . . paying money out to people who claimed to be abused meant that there had to be abusers," Mr. Dunlop said. "Naturally there would be a police investigation."
A 2002 report by retired Quebec judge Fred Kaufman found the compensation program to be severely flawed. More than 600 people were eventually cleared of wrongdoing by the RCMP, and later that year the government sent letters of apology to the people who had been falsely accused.
Dunlop’s firm received the $5.5 million from the province last Thursday and started handing out cheques this week. Individual compensation for the former workers ranged from $20,000 to $120,000, depending on factors such as the number and types of accusations.
Some of the former workers had voiced concern in recent months that the payment was taking so long to come from the province.
Michelle Lucas, spokeswoman for the Public Service Commission, said changes in the way individual payments would be decided were responsible for slowing things down.
Source: ChronicleHerald