by Les May
AN apology to Mr
Harvey Proctor from the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police may be
something of a moral victory for him, but it will do little to help him take up
the threads of his life again. The clock
cannot be put back to a time before he was suddenly thrust into the limelight
by what can only be described as somewhat bizarre allegations against him.
But it is all too easy to simply blame the police for what
happened and ignore the fact that to some degree we have all contributed to the
context in which this kind of misguided approach to investigating serious
allegations could happen. It’s a context in which Harvey Proctor, Paul
Gambaccini, Cliff Richard and others, are seen as no more than ‘collateral
damage’.
The ending of the 2015-2016 session of Parliament meant that
Sir Keir Starmer’s Private Members Victims of Crime Etc (Rights, Entitlements
and Related Matters) Bill never got further than its first reading. Had it passed into law it would have further
weakened the rights of an accused. A
victim would have been defined as a person who has suffered harm which was
directly caused by a criminal offence or in some cases even a close relative would
be treated as a victim.
‘As stipulated in the Bill, no complaint need be made or
determination of guilt found in order for a “victim” to exist. Most obviously,
the question arises as to how a criminal offence can have occurred without the
matter having been proved in court?’
Lord Macdonald, QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions from
2003 to 2008, took issue with the philosophy underpinning the Bill. Speaking to
the Today programme, he said:
'… the worst miscarriages of justice I have seen in my
career have resulted from blinkered investigations in which the police [have]
believed a theory at the start of the case and then gone on to 'prove' that
theory. This supposedly pro-victims' rights stance of saying we believe the
victims at the outset is precisely what we don't want. We don't want the police
deciding what the truth is before the investigation starts … Not everyone who
tells the police that they have been a victim of crime is telling the truth, it
leads to the police believing people who are telling lies.'
He went on to say: 'The victims’ rights movement was born
from the best of reasons, but it is now leading to an imbalance in the justice
system that threatens basic fairness.'
And ‘basic fairness’ is an issue in the Harvey Proctor case
because Starmer had already issued guidelines in 2013 which were supposed ‘to
be applied to all cases where a sexual offence has been committed against a
child or young person’. (Note this interesting distinction between a ‘child’
and a ‘young person’.)
These include, ‘Arrangements for early consultation and
joint work between police and prosecutors to agree a case strategy and address
evidential issues head on.’
Were these guidelines followed? Did the police and prosecutors agree a case
strategy? Were evidential issues addressed head on?
If so why is it only the police that are ‘in the dock’? Why are we not seeing a similar apology from
the CPS? Or is it that the police chose to ignore Starmer’s 2013 guidelines
about consulting with prosecutors at an early stage and fell into the very trap
which Lord Macdonald so clearly sees as a likely outcome of Starmer’s more
recent intervention?
But ranged against Lord Macdonald’s careful assessment we
have assorted pressure groups determined to resist any change away from the
present ‘believe the victim’ mentality and even hitch a ride on the bandwagon,
though their link with the substantive issue of sexual abuse of children is
tenuous.
http://rapecrisis.org.uk/news/keir-starmer-announces-changes-to-criminal-justice-handling-
A month ago Paul Gambaccini and Sir Cliff Richard went to
the House of Lords to lobby for a change in the law so that those who are
accused of sexual abuse are guaranteed anonymity until and unless they are
charged. Lord Paddick, who was
previously the Deputy Assistant Commissioner at the Metropolitan Police, backs
this change.
Two days later the writer Yasmin Alibhai-Brown wrote an
article arguing against this change. She
quoted the lawyer Richard Scorer as saying ‘We have seen countless times how
perpetrators isolate their victims and make them feel no one will believe
them’. But this is just an anecdote, an
assertion which he feels no need to substantiate with quantitative evidence. It’s
‘Believe me I’m a lawyer!’
Alibhai-Brown describes him as a ‘specialist in this
area’. But if you probe just a little
deeper you find that Scorer works at Pannones, part of Slater & Gordon, and
co-authored the book ‘Child Abuse Compensation Claims’. In other words his specialism is, broadly
defined, in personal injury claims, which isn’t quite the same as being a
specialist in preparing criminal proceedings against people accused of child
abuse.
What Scorer does not mention is whether anonymity for people
accused, but not charged, would have any impact upon his business as it would
prevent lawyers signing up the people who made the allegation, as a client in a
civil compensation case and prevent them ‘trawling’ for further clients who had
not yet made a complaint. Put this way
it suggests that the present system is open to abuse by people seeking
financial compensation.
Incidentally, if you check out the Slater and Gordon website
you’ll find they are still running their April 2014 advert touting for business
arising from claims of abuse at Knowl View school even though when these were
investigated by the Greater Manchester Police in Operation Jaguar there was
insufficient evidence to mount a prosecution.
http://www.slatergordon.co.uk/media-centre/blog/2014/04/allegations-of-abuse-against-cyril-smith-victims-seek-answers/
In arguing that naming people accused but not charged
ensures that those claiming to have been abused have the confidence to come
forward Alibhai-Brown ignores the 2013 guidance from the CPS about how such
cases should be handled, which was designed to ensure that the police would
take seriously every complaint of abuse.
For Alibhai-Brown, Harvey Proctor, Paul Gambaccini, Cliff
Richard and others are just ‘collateral damage’. As she puts it ‘We should be
far more concerned about those who never dare tell than about the small number
falsely accused.’ In other words she wants to prioritise the unknown and
unknowable number of people who might be inhibited from coming forward, over
people who we know will suffer greatly from being falsely accused. Should
people like Alibhai-Brown be allowed to have the last word on the question of
naming suspects or is someone else going to speak out?
Is it possible that what we have seen in Operation Midland
is what some people call ‘The Law of
Unintended Consequences’? The
2013 guidelines were intended to reassure those who complained about abuse that
their allegations would be taken seriously and properly investigated. There is no obligation to call complainants
‘victims’ or ‘survivors’. Did the
journalists and pressure groups simply appropriate the terms because it suited
their agenda to do so? Did the police
simply follow suit in an effort to appear ‘victim friendly’? If they did the
this lack of judgement has spectacularly backfired with Hogan-Howe’s apology.
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