Eighteen months ago I received a telephone call from a man who was being investigated in relation to historic sex offences against an old family friend. He was frightened and bewildered and absolutely determined that this was a dreadful mistake, not imagining for a moment it would go anywhere. He instructed us because he didn’t want to entrust this to Legal Aid, he wanted the very best support he could afford. This was too important to him.
When we contacted the police closer to the bail date for an update, we were advised that the Police intended to charge him with three Indecent Assault offences.
Our client, James, was horrified. He was married with two young children and settled in his job and family life. He could barely remember this person save that she had been a friend of his first wife who he had been divorced from for over ten years.
To make matters worse, as he worked as a driver for schoolchildren he was immediately removed from his post pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing. Despite having an unblemished disciplinary record in his 16 years with the school, he was dismissed from his post, losing his only source of income and forcing him onto benefits.
Social Services visited him and his wife of 8 years at home, and interviewed them at length about their two young daughters to satisfy themselves there were no safeguarding issues. Bail was amended to ensure that he was never able to be left alone with his own daughters whilst the matter was pending.
So, he has so far been arrested in front of his family and neighbours, interviewed under caution, bailed to his home address meaning he had to cancel a foreign summer holiday, restricted from being alone with his own daughters and dismissed from his employment.
All of this, and he hasn’t even been charged yet. All of this, on the say so of someone making an allegation from years ago, with no physical evidence or corroboration. That’s all it takes to have the rug pulled from under your life. Can you imagine waking up one normal day and within hours it is as if someone has thrown a hand grenade at your life, and everything is spiraling out of control around you? This is how helpless James and Michelle felt and thank god they had us to turn to.
Our client was shell-shocked to hear the details of the charges against him. We spent many hours together going through the police interviews line by line to piece together his memories and put together his defence. Both he and his wife were not able to reconcile the person they knew with the person being portrayed in the prosecution case. We spent many long meetings together giving his side of the story, and as the months progressed he became more and more depressed as the realisation sank in that this case would eventually boil down to who the jury believed, in the absence of any physical evidence or any corroboration of her story by a third party. It was literally his word against hers.
His mental health suffered and we had many long emails where he literally just poured out his feelings and fears, and many tearful phone calls where he did the same. There were many times during this period that all we could do was be the person on the end of the phone listening to him, and he was very grateful for our support and just being there whenever he needed to talk. There were lots of meetings where we had to be firm and bring the conversation back to the matters we needed to discuss so we could have the best defence possible, but when you are dealing with old memories and high emotions this is sometimes difficult. Being accused of historic sex offences had made his whole world come crashing down.
Because the defence was clear – this simply didn’t happen – a lot of our contact during the period waiting for the trial to start was about comfort and support, talking over things, reassurances and just being there.
His historic sex offences trial starts next week, after a very long and emotional 18 months. At our last meeting, he told me that whatever happens, whatever the outcome, he knows that everything that could have been said and done has been by his defence team. He was so grateful for our support and encouragement, and for always being there to take a phone call or respond to an email almost immediately, and he said that he firmly believed that the only reason he had managed to get through the 18 months it took to come to court was because of our support.
At a time when everyone else assumed the outcome, and turned their back on him either through fear or concern it could be true, we were there for him, and his family, and we walked him through the entire process hand in hand.
If you need help for an allegation of historic sex offences, call our expert team now on 0800 1933 999.
