Richard is a top rated solicitor who has successfully defended clients who have been falsely accused of rape and / or sexual assault, establishing either that there has been accidental self-deception by the complainant (for example, (s)he has mistakenly identified the suspect or has misremembered and / or has a false memory of events), or because the complainant has deliberately attempted to deceive (i.e. lied).
Why would a complainant lie about being raped or sexually assaulted?
Why a complainant is motivated to lie is obviously complicated and fact specific, but the reality is that this does happen; the Crown Prosecution Service (“CPS”) acknowledged in its own report into cases involving false rape allegations that in a seventeen month period one hundred and twenty-five complainants were prosecuted for making up an allegation of rape and it is not unrealistic to expect the instances of false allegations to be much greater than this.
It may be that a complainant seeks material gain or that the allegation is being used to cover up other behaviour; it may be motivated by revenge, or a need for attention and / or sympathy. The complainant may be mentally disturbed or a pathological liar, or may simply be relabelling consensual sex as rape or assault because of disappointment, shame, and / or regret.
Whatever the reason, those on the receiving end of such a complaint cannot simply sit back and wait in the expectation that justice will be done and the police will uncover the truth. Whilst it is true that there are instances where the police have intentionally distorted the facts of a case, more often than not the integrity of the investigators is not the problem. It is an uncomfortable reality that the police are regularly assigned an impossible task, piecing together the past in a way that is entirely reliable (beyond reasonable doubt) whilst at the same time being under-resourced and / or ill-equipped.
Why would a complainant mistakenly but honestly believe (s)he had been raped or sexually assaulted?
There are cases where complainants honestly but mistakenly believe they have been sexually assaulted, with false memories leading to terrible miscarriages of justice. To avoid the innocent being convicted it is essential to understand and expose the fickle nature of human memory.
False memories may be a result of recovered memory therapy or because of confabulation and / or memory conformity, where the complainant’s memories are distorted and influenced by information reported by others. The fact is that memory errors can occur, and it is entirely possible for a complainant’s memory to be shaped by molding his/her or another’s actual past experiences to create a fictitious perceived past – the so-called memory illusion.
Allegations based on false memories are the most difficult to defend – the complainant honestly believes (s)he has been raped and often makes a compelling and credible witness.
Why would a victim of rape or sexual assault mistakenly identify his / her attacker?
Mistaken identity is a common phenomenon in criminal law and sexual assault victims can and do erroneously identify their attackers; honest witnesses can still be mistaken but the problem is that jurors give very strong credence to eyewitness testimony, particularly where the witness is resolute in believing their identification of the suspect is correct.
Defendants must do more than simply assert the “Shaggy Defence” of “it wasn’t me” and a suspect can still be charged in the absence of scientific or other physical evidence. A bald assertion that “someone else did it” will not be enough.
How can I defend a false allegation of rape or sexual assault?
What is required (and what Richard excels at) is a forensic dismantling of the complainant’s account, recreating a timeline of events and systematically researching and attempting to verify or disprove each assertion of fact.
Even when the police have arrested a suspect without having taken any detailed account from the complainant (something which is nowadays very common), so there is little or no information to verify, there are proactive measures that can be taken to safeguard a suspect’s position.
Any and all evidence must be secured, whether that be in the form of tracing and interviewing witnesses or recovering physical evidence such as CCTV footage, social media and other digital or analogue interaction and communication. Alibis should be identified and supporting evidence collected. Potential alternative suspects should be looked into, if necessary with the assistance a private investigator. Where appropriate, scientific experts should be consulted and retained, even if this is to simply secure or conflict out a leader in the particular field.
Once, and only when, the picture has become clear, consideration should be given to disclosing the product of such investigations to the police; this may be early on to expose the reality of the situation, or it may be much later, at or near-trial. The question of what is disclosed, and when, is of crucial tactical importance and Richard’s experience will ensure this is done with maximum effect.
How much will it cost?
Richard does not pretend to be the cheapest lawyer; when his clients instruct him they will receive a premium service and Richard wants them to be able to make a sensible, informed decision on how to fund their case. For that reason, he is completely transparent about what he charges, what this pays for and how this compares to a lawyer being remunerated under legal aid.
Richard has compiled a database of historical bills for matters in a single financial year to help him estimate how much a case will cost. Looking at this data there are 2,067 cases1 where:
- The main allegation was rape,
- There was a single defendant, who
- Pleaded not guilty, and
- Was subseqently tried before a jury in the Crown Court.
Based on this information, Richard's advice is:
- The prosecution evidence in a typical case alleging rape normally runs to approximately 303 pages (note that this does not include CCTV, multi-media or digital evidence; nor does it include any unused material served by the prosecution [i.e. material which the prosecution believes may undermine its case or assist the case for the accused] or any evidence collected by the defence); the minimum number of pages was recorded as 15 and the maximum was 10,628;
- A crown court trial where there is a single defendant and the main allegation is rape will normally comprise 18 prosecution witnesses and last around 6 days (the lowest number of witnesses recorded was 2 and the most was 182; the shortest trial recorded was 1 and the longest was 92);
- For a trial lasting 6 days with 18 witnesses and a similar page count of 303 pages, Richard estimates the total cost (including VAT and the advocates fee but excluding any other disbursements) will be in the range of 71220 to 103260. This compares to the typical fee2 of 10900 paid to the legal team under legal aid.
1 Note that this doesn't represent all of the data on historical cases; in order to try to provide a "like-for-like" comparison it is restricted to cases where there was a single client and the matter was tried in the crown court. This will give you a general idea but obviously Richard will be able to advise you on the specifics of your particular case and the impact this may have on the likely cost. ↩
2 This is an approximation. There are calculators available on the MOJ's website which can help you work out the fee claimable under the scheme, excluding any additional payment made for "special preparation".↩
