News from Claire Curtis Thomas MP
The months from Easter 2005 were dominated by the General Election, the APGAI was one of the first groups to reconstitute in the new Parliament and our AGM was held on the 8th June. Our membership remains at 50 plus, giving the Executive a mandate to work on your behalf.
The Executive confirmed that our main concern continues to be with the processes involved in abuse investigations and that our main objectives are as follows:
Objective analysis of the investigation techniques used in abuse cases.
- The creation of an oral evidence gathering protocol, similar to that which exists for physical evidence.
- Prescribed rules for police officers on the mechanistic parts of the investigation. For example, it should be forbidden to mention compensation in interviews with complainants or witnesses.
- External scrutiny of the NSPCC’s, and other third parties’, procedures.
- The creation of new rules regarding advertising by private solicitors in prisons.
- Anonymity for the accused up to conviction.
- Imprisoned complainants or witnesses should be removed from the prison environment and taken to rape suites for interview, and be treated as sensitively as a complainant alleging rape, with appropriate support and aftercare.
- The video recording of all interviews between the investigating authorities and complainants and witnesses.
- The rules on disclosure to be tightened so that the defence team is not disadvantaged.
We will begin work without delay in October and plans are underway for a Conference on the ‘Interviewing of witnesses and the management of evidence in sex abuse cases’.
John Denham has been reappointed Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, I have not been reappointed but that should make no difference to our work. The Earl Howe and I had a meeting with John Denham at which the following items were discussed:
- The interaction between the CCRC and the Historical Abuse Appeal Panel
- Terms of reference of the CCRC.
- The Senior Officers Handbook on The Investigation of Historic Child Abuse and the lack of an oral evidence protocol.
Since that meeting I have heard that the Home Affairs Committee may follow-up the former Committee’s inquiry into The Conduct of Investigations into Past Cases of Abuse in Children’s Homes. This is excellent news and as requested I have made some suggestions as to what areas of the Report the Committee should look at, I have also asked Mark Newby (Historical Abuse Appeal Panel) to put a paper together for the benefit of the Committee.
Mark and I continue to work closely together and I value his support. For reasons beyond their control the last year has not been an easy one for the Historical Abuse Appeal Panel, a huge amount of work has flooded into them and they have had to cope with this in difficult circumstances. We should thank them for their perseverance.
From all this you will see that many people, unknown to you, continue to work on your behalf and in addition I am hopeful that the autumn will bring new initiatives, particularly in the Care Home cases, with the possibility of ‘spin off’ for others.
Our thanks to Claire Curtis Thomas MP for permission to publish this extract from her recent newsletter.