Pre-Production: Legalities Behind Sexual Offence Prosecutions
Thousands of men have been convicted in the UK of historic sexual assault, often on the basis of a single accuser without any corroborating evidence. Many of these are known to be based on false allegations with innocent men locked up inside a legal system that now considers someone guilty until proven to be innocent.
This website is designed to help those who suffer from these terrible miscarriages of justice and to publicize the dreadful shortcomings of the British Justice System. This is in no way trying to diminish the dreadful impact of sexual abuse. Genuine claims of HSA MUST be investigated and perpetrators locked up. But as recent publicity has shown, the police position that any claim of HSA must be believed has led to an explosion of opportunism.
Anybody can be the victim of a false accusation of historic sexual assault. False accusations can be motivated by compensation, spite, attention or in response to false memory syndrome. False accusations cause immeasurable pain to the accused and their families and undermine the response to real victims of childhood sexual abuse.
Important to note:
The prosecution no longer has to prove “Beyond Reasonable Doubt” of whether them crime actually took place. The Jury is now left to make their decision based on the ‘Balance of Probabilities”. Which is a much lower burden of proof, whereby no evidence is required to prove the offence and no corroboration is needed for the accusation. "The need for corroboration was removed by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 section 32 & 33". (Legislation.gov.uk, 2018) Which make false accusations not only possible but also more probable as well as automatically creating a second-class tier of criminal offenses. "This has been achieved simply by changing the rules of evidence and reducing the burden of proof necessary to CONVICT. It has been easier to convict by the fact that the checks and balances such as the presumption that a person is innocent until proven guilty had come from common law and was therefore not part of the statutory legal framework, meaning that any change necessary could be achieved by the burden of proof, thus changing the treatment of the accused. So the accused is now, in effect, “Guilty until Proven Innocent” and has to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that he/she is innocent of the charges."(Legislation.gov.uk, 2018)
Before this the prosecution had the burden of proof which went far beyond mere accusations, but which no longer applies to Sexual Offences in the UK. This means the Defendant is now “Guilty Until they can prove they're innocent".
References:
Legislation.gov.uk. (2018). Sexual Offences Act 2003. [online] Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/42/schedule/6 [Accessed 11 Dec. 2018].
This website is designed to help those who suffer from these terrible miscarriages of justice and to publicize the dreadful shortcomings of the British Justice System. This is in no way trying to diminish the dreadful impact of sexual abuse. Genuine claims of HSA MUST be investigated and perpetrators locked up. But as recent publicity has shown, the police position that any claim of HSA must be believed has led to an explosion of opportunism.
Anybody can be the victim of a false accusation of historic sexual assault. False accusations can be motivated by compensation, spite, attention or in response to false memory syndrome. False accusations cause immeasurable pain to the accused and their families and undermine the response to real victims of childhood sexual abuse.
Important to note:
The prosecution no longer has to prove “Beyond Reasonable Doubt” of whether them crime actually took place. The Jury is now left to make their decision based on the ‘Balance of Probabilities”. Which is a much lower burden of proof, whereby no evidence is required to prove the offence and no corroboration is needed for the accusation. "The need for corroboration was removed by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 section 32 & 33". (Legislation.gov.uk, 2018) Which make false accusations not only possible but also more probable as well as automatically creating a second-class tier of criminal offenses. "This has been achieved simply by changing the rules of evidence and reducing the burden of proof necessary to CONVICT. It has been easier to convict by the fact that the checks and balances such as the presumption that a person is innocent until proven guilty had come from common law and was therefore not part of the statutory legal framework, meaning that any change necessary could be achieved by the burden of proof, thus changing the treatment of the accused. So the accused is now, in effect, “Guilty until Proven Innocent” and has to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that he/she is innocent of the charges."(Legislation.gov.uk, 2018)
Before this the prosecution had the burden of proof which went far beyond mere accusations, but which no longer applies to Sexual Offences in the UK. This means the Defendant is now “Guilty Until they can prove they're innocent".
References:
Legislation.gov.uk. (2018). Sexual Offences Act 2003. [online] Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/42/schedule/6 [Accessed 11 Dec. 2018].
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