OPEN LETTER To the Prime Minister, Mr Rishi Sunak 10 Downing Street London SW1A 2AA 4th March 2023 Dear Prime Minister, There is a false accusation pandemic coursing its way through the UK aided and abetted by Police Officers which has enabled wrongly arrested, wrongly charged and wrongly convicted people to be incarcerated for years, innocent of the allegations of sexual offences made against them. We are supporting a large group of broken families brought together by the injustice of wrongful convictions of innocent, decent, honest, hard-working, law-abiding family men and women accused of sexual abuse (usually historic) all naively believing that no-one could be found guilty of a crime that you hadn’t committed or indeed, that didn’t even occur. 1) Innocent people are being convicted for non-existent crimes mainly through exploitative, questionable Police conduct and practices, non-disclosure of exculpatory evidence and an abject failure of scrutiny. 2) Police do not routinely carry out full and meaningful investigations resulting in the falsely accused at a disadvantage. Police appear to have an overt lack of interest in getting to the truth of a conviction for rape based only on the word of the accuser. “Believe the victim” has compromised all lines of enquiry. 3) Police are treating the falsely accused with reprehensible complacency and laxity which has obviously and undoubtedly resulted in thousands of unsafe convictions for innocent people. 4) Due Process has been removed as has Innocent until Proven Guilty, Beyond Reasonable Doubt and Presumption of Innocence, thorough investigations are not being carried out, meaning Fair Trials are not an option in alleged sexual abuse cases. 5) No evidence or proof is required to convict an innocent falsely accused person. No meaningful Police investigation takes place, anomalies and multiple inconsistencies routinely accepted from false accusers. When the false accuser’s story doesn’t add up, Police edit statements and withhold exculpatory evidence to secure a conviction. 6) Families suffer because of the failure of the justice system. These families are all now vulnerable and traumatised victims of the UK’s unprincipled and unscrupulous justice system that allows guilty verdicts on non-existent crimes. Unfortunately, hundreds more are being sent to prison by our failing, inept “justice” system.
This is how and why innocent members of the public are in prison erroneously labelled “Sex Offender” where their evidence proves otherwise. Whilst every sympathy is with genuine victims and we know, of course that women and children need to be protected from predators and sexual abusers, having a loved family member in prison has no damage limitation to the innocent or to their families, it just creates more abuse and more victims. False accusers also engage valuable Police time which should be allocated for genuine victims.
The MoJ have published figures stating 12,536 were incarcerated for sexual offences in 2022 exceeded only by violence to that person at 20,341. Drug offences came next with 10,399 incarcerations. Does this confirm fears that for many people Britain suffers from a pervasive moral depravity?
While there is no question that many of those 12.536 people in prison are truly guilty, the sheer number of bewildered, traumatised and desperate people that approach our organisations protesting their innocence of the behaviour alleged against them confirms our belief that false allegations of sexual abuse are an extremely effective weapon in the hands of the vengeful, unscrupulous or disturbed.
This reinforces our certainty that the safeguards so widely believed to be in place to prevent miscarriages of justice are, in this aspect of the operation of our criminal law, of little or no avail to the falsely accused person who has been given very little opportunity to prove their innocence with so much against them!
Undisclosed evidence is often the most common reason innocent people are wrongly convicted.
It is imperative that the judicial system be honest and impartial, sturdier, fairer, unbiased and more robust, to ensure that the right person is convicted and a crime was actually committed, instead of imprisoning innocent people for non-existent crimes.
The damage and impact a false allegation has on families is inestimable. - women & children persecuted from the backlash with abuse & terror from” vigilante” groups – a life sentence for anyone falsely accused and for their families, children and grandchildren and adding to their distress and anguish at losing their husband/father/grandfather - a dire position to force upon families.
We and our many members are well aware of the injustices of the legal system as we have already lost family members to the broken system. Our concern is that MP’s and decision-makers do not appear to be aware of the catastrophic damage being done to families.
Are you aware that more than 300,000* children are impacted each year - all victims of the broken system? As you can see, the signatories to this letter’s mission is to make the country aware – the population, should they have the great misfortune to suffer a false accusation, Police and the legal system almost always fails them.
Would you, as Prime Minister of this nation and a family man, wish to stand on a platform making this statement?
How well could you sleep at night knowing that Police and our legal system are failing citizens whose interests you wish to represent and protect?
Respectfully yours,
Mrs Sheila Harmon for and on behalf of the organisations and their members of:
SUAVV (Supporting Victims of Unfounded Allegations of Abuse) (Also known as FACT)
FASO (Falsely Allegations Support Organisation)
FAD (Falsely Accused Day)
Falsely Accused Letters to the Establishments
MeTooFalselyAccused
Fighting for the Falsely Accused
Address:
Email:
Mobile:
*Prison Fellowship - Children with a parent in prison