Rape case evidence scandal ‘tip of the iceberg’
Police may be ‘unconsciously biased’ towards people who report sex-offences
Last month, Liam Allan’s trial on multiple charges of rape collapsed because of the late disclosure of evidence. But the case of the student, who was made to face trial because police withheld evidence, is just the ‘tip of the iceberg’, senior barristers said after the prosecution was dropped. Dozens of cases have collapsed in the past three years because of serious police failings over the way they handle evidence, according to an inspection report. In one case, a man accused of robbery spent six months in jail before a prosecutor found evidence confirming that he had been robbed by the ‘victim’, who was a violent drug dealer.
Liam Allan, 22, spent almost two years on bail and was three days into his trial before police handed over text messages that exonerated him. Angela Rafferty QC, chairwoman of the Criminal Bar Association said that without the intervention of the barristers in court Mr Allan ‘would have suffered an appalling miscarriage of justice’ because of the failure of police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
She warned that the failure was ‘not an isolated incident’ and said that police and the CPS may be ‘unconsciously bias[ed]’ towards people who report sex offences.
Mr Allan’s acquittal comes as concern grows over a series of rape cases involving young men that have fallen apart because of fears about the quality of the evidence. A report in July by HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, seen by this newspaper, found that police and CPS staff blamed ‘limited resources and lack of time’ for the poor disclosure of evidence.
Critics said Mr Allan’s case showed that lessons had not been learnt. Ms Rafferty said: “The case should never have been brought. Public funds were wasted, he spent two years on bail, and no good has come of it. The authorities do not appear to have learnt lessons from the joint report by HM Inspectors of the CPS and Constabulary in July 2017, which highlighted systemic failures and offered remedies.”
The woman who accused Mr Allan faces investigation for attempting to pervert the course of justice. The detective involved will be questioned about the failure to hand over the vital evidence. The accuser told police that she hated sex but wrote hundreds of text messages to friends saying she was devastated when Mr Allan said that they could not meet again and discussing in detail her enjoyment of sex.
