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Home Affairs Select Committee

On 31 October 2002, the Home Affairs Select Committee published A Report into the Conduct of Past Cases of Abuse in Children's Homes. The Committee concluded that "a new genre of miscarriage of justice had occured"  from what it calls "the over enthusiastic pursuit" of abuse allegations in children's homes, many relating to events said to have occured going back over twenty or more years. The report acknowledged that large numbers of people have had their lives and career ruined by unfounded allegations. The report is a crucial one, though sadly the Government did not accept it's findings.

Below is F.A.C.T. (North Wales) guide to the report from a North Wales perspective.

Downloads

Summary from FACT North Wales

The original report (download from www.parliament.uk)

The Government's response (download direct from the Home Office)

Context

• In the last five years, 34 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales have been involved in investigations into allegations of child abuse in children's homes and other situations.
• These allegations mostly relate to historical abuse which occurred several years ago.
• In recent years it has been strongly argued by lawyers, journalists and of course victims of false allegations (and their families) that serious miscarriages of justice have arisen from over-enthusiastic pursuit of allegations.
• It has been suggested that police have been over zealous in their methods and that 'trawling' for information produces unreliable evidence for the prosecution and unsafe convictions.
• It has also been suggested that the emergence of a blame culture and the quest for compensation has seriously distorted the extent to which some children claim they have been abused.

The Enquiry

• The decision to conduct the enquiry was in response to a number of representations received by the Committee and owes a great deal to the efforts of Clare Curtis-Thomas MP who first bought Parliamentary attention to the issue.
• The purpose of this enquiry was to examine the general method and process by which convictions have been achieved and to see if changes were necessary
• The report tries to address the need to have an effective system for investigating allegations of abuse with the need to ensure that accused individuals have their legal rights protected, thereby avoiding miscarriages of justice.
• The enquiry heard evidence that Government and police are beginning to recognise that miscarriages of justice may have occurred and that procedures for investigating such complaints need tightening up. Recently two important guidance documents have been published. These include new police guidelines issued to the Association of Chief Police Officers (March 2002) as an internal police handbook 'The Investigation of Historic Institutional Child Abuse'. In June the Government also published a multi-agency guidance document on the conduct of complex abuse investigations.
• The enquiry heard evidence from a wide range of interested parties including complainants, victims of complaints, the police, investigative agencies, child-care organisations, voluntary bodies, social workers and staff who had worked in former children's homes, or had expertise in the investigative field or in child protection such as journalists, lawyers, academics.

The Main Questions asked by the Committee were:

• Do police methods of 'trawling' for evidence involve a disproportionate use of resources and produce unreliable evidence for prosecution?
• Is the Crown Prosecution Service drawing a sensible line about which cases should be prosecuted?
• Should there be a time limit - in terms of number of years since the alleged offence took place - on prosecution of cases of child abuse?
• Is there a risk that the advertisement of prospective awards of compensation in child abuse cases encourages people to come forward with fabricated allegations?
• Is there a weakness in the current law on 'similar fact' evidence?

The Evidence in Wales

• The report primarily dealt with the situation in England and Wales. The evidence considered by the Committee was also published.
• The position in Wales was often referred to largely because it was in North Wales that the practice of police trawling developed, and because of the findings of the Waterhouse Report have particular resonance for complainants and victims of complaints.
• Of particular interest are the written submissions from persons connected with Wales. These include evidence from:
  • Julie Driscol (a care leaver with connections to Cardiff). She gave evidence that there was a great risk of people fabricating allegations in the hope of compensation, and was critical of the media approach to the problems of abuse in such programmes as BBC Wales fictional documentary "Care". She goes on to cite two cases known to her where people fabricated evidence of abuse, and goes on to acknowledge that innocent people have inevitably been wrongly convicted.
  • Nigel Duggan (Liaison Consultant - Operation Goldfinch - South Wales) Despite holding a key role as a Consultant to Operation Goldfinch, Mr Duggan was unable to give an informed response to the issues of trawling as he did not posses the necessary expertise. On a personal level however he drew attention to the ever present risk that prospective awards of compensation might encourage unscrupulous individuals to make false allegations of abuse.
  • Flintshire County Council - submission by Karen Reilly. This submission acknowledges that police trawling does take place and that the writer suspects that it involves the police in a disproportionate use of police resources. It also draws attention to inconsistent approaches taken by the CPS when deciding whether or not prosecutions should take place. The submission goes on to highlight the risk that advertisements of prospective compensation awards in child abuse cases encourages fabricated evidence.
  • Gwent Social Services: In a predictably negative response Gwent SSD express confidence in the system and in their own involvement, even to the point of stating that whilst there is a theoretical possibility that prospective awards of compensation might encourage fabricated allegations they are sure that this has not happened in Gwent.
  • Dr Herdman - Medical Officer at Ty Mawr - also in Gwent. Dr Hardman begins with a slightly humorous but disturbing comment that despite his 30 odd year role as Medical Officer at Ty Mawr he was only interviewed by the police once - in his garden whilst attending the vegetable patch - and was not asked about the school's regime. Dr Herdman draws attention to the problem of 'false witness' and to the issue of compensation and concludes by saying that throughout his thirty years at Ty Mawr he never saw any evidence of abuse.
  • Rhondda Cynan Taff CBC: Rhondda Cynan Taff Council made a brief general response to the issues raised. They begin with the remarkable statement that no evidence of trawling was found. They make no comment on the issue of compensation, ignoring the question altogether.
  • Gordon Ramsay (Ex Clwyd - senior manager). Mr Ramsay provides a personal account of his dealing with North Wales Police and of the way they tried to get him to give evidence which was not true, or which he could not substantiate in Court, in order to help their case. He makes the point that if the Police were prepared to do this with a senior manager how much more likely they were to do so to an impressionable complainant.
  • Detective Chief Inspector Tinnuche, Senior Officer - Operation Goldfinch (South Wales). DCI Tinnuche refutes that the police used trawling methods, and points to the requirement of the police to provide the CPS with information, whether this supports or undermines the prosecution case, casts scorn on those who believe that complainants or witnesses would commit perjury, and rejects the idea that police officers are involved in a witch hunt. He goes on to state that he doubts whether individuals have been motivated to complain by the prospect of compensation even though he acknowledges that about 25% (33) of the 133 complainants pursued compensation claims.
  • Other contributions from Wales included those made by Wrexham Council, Graham Rees and two others whose reports were not been identified as such as they did not meet the criteria for publication but were nevertheless received by the Committee.

Other Matters

• One of the central findings of the Select Committee is that the over enthusiastic pursuit of allegations of abuse has led to a new genre of miscarriages of justice. The Select Committee were concerned to hear that between 1997 and 2000 the Crown Prosecution Service rejected a staggering 79% of cases of institutional child abuse presented by the police. (The figure for other crimes is 13%). The select Committee considered this to be evidence of an over zealous approach by the police to the investigation of child abuse.
• What is significant about this is that in the Appendix of Vol. 1 of the Select Committee Report there is a force by force breakdown showing the number of cases referred by respective police forces to the CPS and subsequent action taken, during the period January 1988 and May 2001. What this shows is that nationally (Eng and Wales) 87% of cases sent to CPS resulted in no further action i.e. were rejected. This again supports the view that the Police were being over zealous in seeking prosecutions. If one looks at the figures for North Wales Police an even more disturbing picture emerges. North Wales had almost as many cases thrown out by CPS (482) as the rest of the nation (England and Wales) put together (491). The average for the whole country was 69% thrown out. The average for North Wales was 97%. No explanations are given as to why North Wales Police should have the worse rejection rate of all police forces. (In due course we will ask them and let you know their response.)

Conclusions

• There remains a need for a clear set of prescriptive guidelines, governing the conduct of police investigations and prosecution proceedings.
• There is urgent need for proper recording of police interviews of complainants and other witnesses.
• Prosecutions could be improved by stronger partnerships between the police and Crown Prosecution Service with early consultation on the conduct and direction of investigations.
• Due to the prejudicial nature of these offences, the committee believes there is a strong case for establishing special safeguards for trials in historical child abuse cases.
• Rejects the proposal for a statutory time limit, however the committee believes some form of time limitation is necessary.
• Recommends after a period of ten years, prosecutions only proceed with the court's permission
• Believes it is necessary to tighten the rules for excluding the use of similar allegations as evidence to corroborate a charge, 'similar fact' evidence only to be admitted if it bears a striking similarity to evidence relating to the charged offence. Accompanied by a presumption in favour of ordering separate trials, in cases with no similarity between counts of abuse listed on the indictment.
• Expressed concern over the potential for compensation to act as an inducement for giving false evidence.
• Recommended the working relationship between personal injury solicitors and the police be guided by a 'model relationship' to be drawn by the Home Office.
• Simplest and quickest route to compensation, is via the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, hope the Authority will seek to revise rules and procedures to make the Scheme more attractive to victims of past childhood abuse.
• Important that the Criminal Cases Review Commission and the appeal court take a robust approach to the review of suspected wrongful convictions.