International Falsely Accused Day (IFAD) 2025

The London International Falsely Accused Day 2025 took place outside the Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand on September 9th. Held every year since 2020 on this day, falsely accused BBC presenter Simon Warr’s birthday, IFAD is now being celebrated around the world. This is because false allegations and their consequent wrongful convictions have become a global epidemic, and the public has got to the point where if people haven’t been falsely accused themselves, they by now know someone who has - and they are spotting patterns of institutional behaviour.

Dr Michael Naughton of Empowering The Innocent/University of Bristol gave a speech highlighting the political and socio-cultural forces that perpetuate false allegations, stemming from a feminist ideological germ that has infected the criminal justice system in the area of alleged sexual offences. The criminal justice system, he said, is not broken but, rather, working precisely as it is intended to by design.

Anna Doherty from Spoken Injustice gave a passionate and most courageous speech with reference to the false accusation and wrongful conviction of her husband, emphasising the harm that was experienced/suffered by her whole family. From this standpoint, Anna's mission, and that of Spoken Injustice, is to humanise the criminal justice system. As she said, behind every case file is a human being, attached to other human beings, and we need to fight as fiercely for the the innocent as much as we do for genuine victims of crime. To this end, Anna spoke of Spoken Injustice's new project, Your Voice Matter, where those falsely accused and wrongly convicted can speak truth without filter. Anna ended her speech powerfully in the following terms: "We see you. We hear you. You matter. Your pain will not remain unseen."

Mike Thompson of Falsely Accused Network (FAN) spoke about paternity fraud and its association with false allegations; and Krista Brown, formerly known on social media as The Not So Secret Defendant, spoke about the impact of being falsely accused of serious fraud by HMRC, and being found Not Guilty on all counts after a seven year wait.

Christopher Logan gave a confident speech on behalf of the Lucy Letby campaign, fully aware that their subject might be responsible for the many more cameras and journalists than IFAD attracted in recent years. Songwriter, producer and false allegations loudhailer since his own alleged wrongful conviction in the early 2000s Jonathan King gave a brief commentary, culminating in his customarily flamboyant ‘f*ck the defence lawyers!’, while Brian Buckle, who spent years inside over sexual abuse that didn’t happen, was supported in his impassioned speech by his wonderful family.

False memory expert - and falsely accused by his own sister - Kevin Felstead is writing a book about Buckle’s case, and Kevin gave a brief talk into where the false allegations industry is now. Tom Toolan attended too, giving a heartbreaking presentation about his daughter Rhian, whom he says has been ‘abducted’ by the Polish government, and his endless struggle for some official accountability. Parts of the day were also recorded by academic and writer Lana Starkey, accompanied by Montgomery Toms and Will Coleshill of the Resistance GB YouTube channel, to be released at a future time.

The day before, Banksy had unveiled a graffiti mural of a judge beating a protestor with a gavel, gaining headlines around the world. Whether this was directly related to IFAD or not, Jonathan King highlighted the fact that the Court’s hastiness to cover it up made it look exactly as if they had something to hide - Innocence Art coming to the steps of the RCJ in real, hyper-mediated time. Similar demonstrations were held in Scotland, Argentina, Spain, India and other countries around the world.

By Sean Bw Parker