Archive for cleared
BBC North East report that A former Cleveland Police officer who was wrongfully sent to prison has been awarded almost £400,000 after an 18-year legal fight.
Former traffic officer Sultan Alam, 48, was jailed for 18 months in 1996 for conspiracy to steal car parts, but was cleared by the Court of Appeal in 2007.
Cleveland Police had admitted the malicious prosecution of Mr Alam, at Leeds County Court.
Judge Andrew Keyser QC said the force had tried to “destroy” his reputation.
Cleveland Police said it was “pleased” with the outcome.
As well as damages, Mr Alam will also receive compensation for loss of earnings ...
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Following the collapse of the trial the Crown Prosecution Service have issued the following statement
CPS statement on R v Mouncher and Others
01/12/2011
The CPS has today decided to discontinue proceedings in the trial of eight former police officers accused of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Simon Clements, the CPS reviewing lawyer in the case said: “The allegations against these men arose out of their investigation into the murder of Lynette White. Three men were wrongly convicted in 1990 of her murder and had their convictions quashed on appeal.
“These were extremely serious allegations that men who were then serving police officers ...
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One of the most significant police anti-corruption cases in modern times has collapsed, after two former detectives, who had both served lengthy jail sentences, were cleared at a retrial.
Robert Clark and Christopher Drury were drummed out of the force in disgrace after being convicted in 2000 of robbing drug dealers and recycling the narcotics.
Their convictions were among the highest profile and most significant obtained by Scotland Yard in its long-running battle against corruption.
They walked free after a supergrass witness recanted her evidence, leaving Scotland Yard facing a potential bill for the former officers’ back wages and compensation running into hundreds of thousands ...
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A top West Midlands Police officer has been cleared of child sex offence charges.
Det Insp Glen Boulton, 46, was found not guilty after the Crown Prosecution Service offered no evidence.
Judge Robert Orme directed the jury to return not guilty verdicts at Warwick Crown Court.
The officer of more than 20 years experience said he was now looking forward to returning to work and a normal family life.
DI Boulton, of Bentley Heath, Solihull, had been charged with four counts of indecent assault and two counts of indecency with a child under the age of 13 between 1978 and 1984.
Prosecutor Steven Bailey said ...
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This article appeared in the Daily Telegraph on the 20th October (here)
When Alison Addison was accused of abusing the special-needs children in her care, she thought she would quickly be cleared.
The claims – that she had physically abused the children, used racist words and had sexual intercourse with the caretaker in her school’s pool – seemed too outlandish to withstand any scrutiny.
Instead, the teacher waited five years to be free of the slurs made by a colleague that ended the career she had loved for 24 years.
She was finally cleared by the General Teaching Council for England last month when ...
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This article by James Tozer appeared in the Daily Mail on the 27th September
A teacher cleared of sexually assaulting six pupils yesterday told of the agony of being ordered to live away from his wife and baby son.
Peter Wilson suffered the indignity of social workers attending the birth of his first child and making him swear he would not live with his family for the eight months it took to resolve the allegations.
Yesterday a jury took just 20 minutes to acquit him of all the charges, brought after girls at his primary school accused him of kissing them and touching ...
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This item appeared on the Yorkshire Post web site here
A campaign for an overhaul of the law to grant anonymity to teachers accused by pupils ahead of court cases has been launched by a lawyer who has joined forces with an international best-selling author.
The call for the so-called Bill’s Law has been named after a respected teacher, William Stuart, who was acquitted following a six-month ordeal which was sparked when a 15-year-old girl alleged he had assaulted her.
His solicitor, Nick Turner, has linked up with the best-selling author Graham Taylor – a family friend of the Stuarts in Scarborough and ...
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This items appears on the Daily Telegraph website
A secondary school assistant head teacher has spoken of his anguish at being accused of assualt by an unruly pupil as he tried to restore order in his school.
Since March, life for the Stuart family has been turned upside down. Even a shopping trip to town became an ordeal, through fear of people pointing and whispering behind their hands that there was “no smoke without fire”.
After a 23-year unblemished career as a teacher, William Stuart was arrested six months ago and accused of assaulting a 15-year-old girl in a corridor at Graham School, ...
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It has been widely reported in the press that the Metropoilitan Police have confirmed a sexual assault case against Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen has been dropped.
Backbench MP Mr Bridgen, 46, was arrested in central London in the early hours of 9 June after a 29-year-old woman made a complaint to police.
The North West Leicestershire MP was questioned by officers but not charged and released on bail until mid-July.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed no further action would be taken against Mr Bridgen.
‘Ludicrous’ allegation
In a statement, the former Royal Marine, who became an MP ...
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Our attention has been drawn to a Court of Appeal judgment in which a man was cleared of convictions relating to offences said to have occurred between 37 and 40 years prior to their disclosure.
Neutral Citation Number: [2011] EWCA Crim 726
Case No: D1/201002010
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
ON APPEAL FROM WOOLWICH CROWN COURT
HIS HONOUR JUDGE SHORROCK
T20097440
B e f o r e
LORD JUSTICE JACKSON
MR JUSTICE SILBER
and
THE COMMON SERJEANT, HHJ BARKER QC,
SITTING AS A JUDGE OF THE COURT OF APPEAL CRIMINAL DIVISION
Ms Teresa Hay (instructed by Crown Prosecution Service) for the Respondent
Ms Maria Dineen (instructed by Registrar ...
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This extract has been taken from a report that appeared in the Evening Standard on 31st March 2011
A paramedic who was sacked after a patient falsely accused him of rape is suing the London Ambulance Service for unfair dismissal.
The patient, 33, called police an hour after David Gledhill had escorted her back into her home in west London. He told a Croydon employment tribunal that the woman, who had been drinking, made lewd suggestions, partially stripped off and rubbed herself against him.
Mr Gledhill, from Isleworth, said he hoped to clear his name and “restore my ability to work ...
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This report by Christine Cunningham appeared on EDP on the 5th February 2011
A dedicated retired art teacher was last night hoping to rebuild his life after being cleared of sexually assaulting a pupil at a Norfolk school.
Christopher Harvey, 63, a former teacher at Northgate High School, Dereham, was yesterday cleared by a Norwich Crown Court jury of indecent assault at the school during a one-to-one teaching session he had with the girl between September 1997 and July 2001.
The case brings into focus the continuing debate about teachers’ careers being blighted by com-plaints that are later ...
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A vicar and former teacher accused of molesting pupils more than 30 years ago has been acquitted by a jury on all counts.
The Rev James Wilson was found not guilty by a jury of 16 counts of indecently assaulting children under the age of 13 which he had faced.
Canon Wilson, the Rector and Rural Dean of Calstock in South East Cornwall, left the dock without saying a word after the verdicts were read out.
The jury had deliberated for seven hours and six minutes following the eight-day trial at Plymouth Crown Court.
Yesterday, the ...
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A former approved school housemaster has been cleared of sexual abuse allegations, amid stinging criticism of police investigators in the North East.
Roderick Ryall, 68, had been subject to a “witch hunt” by police and alleged victims seeking to take advantage of his past convictions for child abuse, Teesside Crown Court heard.
Walking free from court yesterday, Mr Ryall condemned police handling of the case.
He was alleged to have abused two teenage pupils at Aycliffe Approved ...
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A teacher sacked for wearing trainers and tracksuit bottoms by a headteacher he accused of “bullying” has been cleared of unacceptable professional conduct.
Adrian Swain, whose dismissal sparked a ballot for industrial action at his school, said he felt “vindicated” after the General Teaching Council for England (GTC) said he had “no case to answer” and that punishing him was not in the public interest.
Mr Swain has also received an apology from his local authority after it reported his case to the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) five months after he left St Paul’s ...
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Mark Ellwood will be able to work with children again following false accusations against him.
Mark Ellwood, already found not guilty of the assault in court, has now also been cleared by the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).
He has been exonerated and will now be able to work with children again.
It ends an 18-month period which followed an accusation that he assaulted a pupil with a kickboxing move ...
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A church-going father who was raped as a child has been jailed for a year after attacking a man in Reading Crown Court this morning.
John Affleck, 52, grabbed 63-year-old Oliver Gilbart-Smith and poured petrol over him during a hearing in one of the courtrooms before being restrained by court officers.
Mr Gilbart-Smith had been acquitted at the same court 10 days ago for his alleged involvement in a paedophile ring in Maidenhead in the late 1960s and at a hearing this morning, two further charges the jury had failed to reach a verdict on were dropped.
As Mr Gilbart-Smith, from Maidenhead, walked ...
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False rape claim man loses compensation bid.
The woman who falsely accused Mr Bishop was later jailed
A former Somerset taxi driver who was falsely accused of rape has lost his application for compensation.
Clive Bishop, 50, from Street, has said he lost his taxi business and was shunned by his local community as a result of the claims.
A tribunal ruled last year that Mr Bishop could apply to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA).
But CICA has decided he is not ...
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A Gower man jailed for attempting to rape a young girl has had his conviction quashed on appeal.
Neil Gordon Owen was sentenced to nine years at Swansea Crown Court last October, after also being found guilty by a jury of sexually assaulting a schoolgirl.
But his conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal last month after fresh evidence came to light — and the 33-year-old, of Station Road in Penclawdd, has spoken of his horror at his experience.
“It has been a total nightmare,” he said.
“I have had people looking at me in the street, wondering ...
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A teacher accused of raping a 19-year-old woman at his home and possessing cocaine has been cleared.
Formal not guilty verdicts were recorded at Cardiff Crown Court on Huw Elystan Davies, 38, of Bridgend.
He had denied rape and supplying cocaine. He admitted possessing the drug and was fined £500 and the judge said he set a “truly dreadful example”.
After the case, Davies said: “I’m extremely relieved this terrible ordeal in my life is now at an end.”
The Welsh teacher at Brynteg Comprehensive School in Bridgend was also ordered to pay a £15 victim surcharge.
Judge Stephen Hopkins told him: “What is most ...
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Hannah McIntyre, 25, had denied one count of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust.
Liverpool Crown Court heard claims that Miss McIntyre, of Waterloo, Merseyside, seduced the boy after giving him cider.
Miss McIntrye, a teacher at the £8,424-a-year Merchant Taylor’s boys school, in Crosby, said she was “ecstatic” after being cleared.
More information
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A steel worker falsely accused of a knifepoint rape feared for his life in a year of hell behind bars.
Shattered Jason Duncan, 22, spoke of his ordeal last night after a jury rejected his accuser’s lies in just an hour.
During his year on remand, Jason was beaten and attacked with razor blades, boiling water and spat on after other prison inmates found out that he was charged with rape.
And last night he said the false accusation of rape – made against him and pal Chris Hoey, 20, by a woman he knew – had destroyed ...
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A teacher cleared of having sex with a pupil at a Cheshire special school said she knew she was exposing herself to the risk of a false accusation.
Teresa McKenzie, 39, of Meifod, near Welshpool, Powys, said she had been dealing with a “deeply disturbed and suicidal teenager” who demanded care.
She had faced seven charges of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust.
But a jury returned a unanimous not guilty verdict after less than an hour.
Mrs McKenzie was accused of having a 14-month affair with the boy from London, ...
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A blind musician from Sheffield has been cleared of all charges after being accused of molesting a schoolboy over 20 years ago.
Keyboard player Michael Higgins, aged 46, of Portland Court, Langsett, had denied two allegations of indecent assault which the supposed victim claimed happened in 1987.
Mr Higgins was acquitted at the Old Bailey in London yesterday afternoon after a trial spanning four weeks.
His solicitor Chris Saltrese told The Star afterwards: “The jurors are to be congratulated in reaching their verdict. It is an immense relief to Mr Higgins and his partner, who have suffered a great deal of anxiety and ...
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A blind musician from Sheffield has been cleared of all charges after being accused of molesting a schoolboy over 20 years ago.
Keyboard player Michael Higgins, aged 46, of Portland Court, Langsett, had denied two allegations of indecent assault which the supposed victim claimed happened in 1987.
Mr Higgins was acquitted at the Old Bailey in London yesterday afternoon after a trial spanning four weeks.
His solicitor Chris Saltrese told The Star afterwards: “The jurors are to be congratulated in reaching their verdict. It is an immense relief to Mr Higgins and his partner, who have suffered a great deal of anxiety and ...
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