Bureaucrats and Jobsworths
Now here's an interesting, if very disturbing, report from the Guardian - the kind of legal case that ought to be part of an informed and wider public debate on crimes and the victims of crimes.
I should fist of all declare an interest which is that I have a very low opinion of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) or Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) as it is called in Scotland - in my view these public bodies are full of bureaucrats and jobsworths who are a law unto themselves.
In this case a young woman (a minor) claims she was raped by a police officer and her own evidence was backed up by by her father who reported the crime and the fact that he had found an on duty police officer in his young daughter's bedroom.
The police officer was disciplined and allowed to resign, but no criminal prosecution was brought forward which speaks volumes about treatment meted out to victims of crimes - even though the CPS argues that things are very different these days.
I'm not so sure because although a man (police officer or otherwise) would have no defence for having sex with a 14-year-old - if the young woman was 16 or more, the picture might be very different since the alleged rapist could presumably argue that sex was consensual, which is the real difficulty with these cases.
But as ever the criminal justice system is remote and aloof from the people it claims to serve - and the fact that the police and other authorities say there are no records that would allow such a serious case to be re-examined - is simply ludicrous.
Nonetheless, I take my hat off to Michelle Noble for speaking out - that cannot have been easy.
Alleged victim of police officer rape hits brick wall in pursuit of justice
30 years on, woman, 47, waives anonymity after being told her case about incident when she was 14 cannot be reopened
Michelle Noble said she felt the Savile revelations offered hope to child victims. Photograph: David Sillitoe for the Guardian
By Alexandra Topping
Sitting in a solicitor's office in a smart street in Nottingham, Michelle Noble appears polite, brisk and in control. But the mask slips when she recalls the moment she says she was raped by a Nottinghamshire policeman when she was just 14.
Noble, now 47, pauses for breath. Tears come and she is back to the incident that sent her life spiralling out of control: "This is the hard bit for me. It still doesn't sit right in my head," she manages. "I didn't fight him, I just did as I was told. I just lay down and let him do what he wanted." At the time, Noble was told there was not enough evidence to prosecute her alleged abuser, but he was forced to resign after being found guilty of "discreditable conduct". And that, she thought, was that.
Three decades later, however, following a difficult road to recovery after drug addiction – provoked, she says, by the ordeal – Noble saw the victims of Jimmy Savile speak out and finally decided she wanted to pursue her own case. But she has got nowhere. Nottinghamshire police say that with no fresh evidence they cannot reopen the case. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has told her that all records relating to her have been destroyed. Once hopeful that the Savile revelations would open the doors to justice, she has been left feeling frustrated and ignored.
Hers is not an isolated experience. Police forces have been inundated with claims of child sexual abuse in the Savile aftermath: a BBC freedom of information request has revealed that in the six months following the revelations that began in October of last year there was a 70% increase in the number of claims made to forces.
But recent figures uncovered by Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, showed that there was a 28% drop in the number of child abuse cases referred by the police to the CPS since 2010. Acknowledging there was a "concern", home secretary Theresa May suggested that hard-to-investigate historic abuse cases such as those involving Savile could be partly to blame for a fall in the proportion of rape, domestic violence and child abuse cases being referred for prosecution, and promised to look into the matter carefully.
Charities and police have also struggled to cope with the number of people coming forward in the past year, says Peter Saunders of abuse survivors' charity Napac.
"It has been overwhelming in the last 12 months – indeed there was a time it felt we might buckle under the strain," he says. "There has been a massive public shift, with people thinking that now they might just get a hearing."
The last 12 months have brought unprecedented shifts in the way child sex abuse cases are dealt with by the judicial service: in June, the then director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, introduced anational child sexual abuse panel to review historic complaints of sex abuse not pursued by police or prosecutors (stressing that he thought the number of cases reopened would be in the hundreds rather than thousands) , and issued new guidelines for dealing with victims.
But despite the new tone, victims of historic abuse – and the forces asked to help them get justice – still face an uphill struggle. The barriers to prosecution – sparse evidence, patchy records and ageing memories – have not disappeared, warns Saunders.
"The reality remains that people who want to bring their perpetrators to justice have very little chance, because these cases are extremely difficult to prove. While there has been a serious shift in the judiciary, on the ground there is still a reluctance to tackle this issue. The risk is that we are setting people up only to let them down again. And that is a tragedy." Noble feels that her case warrants a second look by police and prosecutors. As a 14-year-old she was arrested in a case of mistaken identity and taken to her home in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, by an officer. After she had shut but not locked the door, he followed her into the house. "He opened the door to my bedroom and said to me: 'You want fucking.' And that was it."
Disturbed by the sound of her father coming into the house, the officer threatened Noble, warning that she would be put into care if she spoke out. Having found the officer in her bedroom, her father nonetheless reported the crime, and two days later, after being allowed to take a bath, Noble was taken, alone, to a medical examination. "[The doctor] looked at me with disgust. He said 'Get your clothes off, get in those stirrups and open your fucking legs' […] He looked at my vagina and said 'You've had more fucking prick than a second-hand dartboard, you're nothing but a little slag.'"
She then claims she and her father were subjected to a campaign of harassment by officers urging her to drop charges, until her parents were informed three months later, in March 1981, that there was "insufficient evidence" for criminal prosecution, but the officer would face a disciplinary hearing.
But on 10 August 1981, a month after the hearing at which Noble told her story, the family received a letter from the Police Complaints Board – a predecessor of the IPCC – saying the officer had been "forced to resign". The letter, seen by the Guardian, states: "The Chief Constable is very concerned that the officer should have behaved so irresponsibly, and some measure of his feelings can be gained by the severity of the punishment awarded. He trusts the outcome of your complaint will have reminded other police officers of the high standard of integrity required of them."
When Noble decided to take up the case again, she says she encountered bureaucratic obstacles. She was interviewed by Nottinghamshire police in January, but three solicitor's letters – in May, June and July 2013 – went unanswered. The force contacted the solicitors in September 2013 to say a woman Noble thought had been another victim of the same man had been traced but had nothing to report, and the force said it would not reopen the case. "In light of this there is no new evidence and as such Nottinghamshire Police will not re-open the investigation," said the letter.Deterred but determined, Noble took her case to her MP Gloria de Piero, shadow equalities minister, who has pushed for the evidence to be reexamined and calls Noble's bravery "humbling", adding "time doesn't diminish the horror of such as serious crime and Noble deserves justice".
Nottinghamshire police say they have no record of the disciplinary hearing, or what the "discreditable conduct" charge that the officer faced actually entailed. They confirmed the surname of the officer involved, but would not reveal if he was receiving a police pension. But no documentation of what happened remains, no new witnesses have come forward, those who disciplined the officer have long retired and the then chief constable has died.
Facing what appeared to be a brick wall, Noble has waived her anonymity to speak to the Guardian, in the hope that other potential victims might come forward. "He does need to be held accountable – people need to know what he is," she says.
Her case highlights many of the hurdles that adults abused as children face in seeking a prosecution. Jackie Alexander, head of the professional standards directorate at Nottinghamshire police, said the force had discussed Noble's case with the CPS but had been referred toits guidelines, which allow the decision not to prosecute to be overturned if "the prosecutor who originally decided not to charge or discontinued the case made an error of law or fact", if new evidence has materialised or is due to, or if an inquest sheds light on a death. The force recently supported a woman who came forward with sexual allegations against a police officer and was committed to tackling "abhorrent" abuses committed by officers regardless of when they occurred, she says.
Alexander stresses that, along with public attitudes, police treatment of child victims has completely transformed. "We are in a different place to where we were 30 years ago, both the criminal justice system and the public . I think people are much more ready to believe victims and ready to believe that some people are capable of anything," she says, adding: "I'd like to reassure [Noble] that a 14-year-old today would not be in her situation.""I am genuinely very sorry if [Noble] feels that there is any reluctance on the part of Nottinghamshire police to assist in ensuring that justice is properly served," Alexander says. "We are not reluctant, but we do have to work within the CPS guidance and take account of relevant legislation. We have to work within the law, and there is a lot of law to work within."
However, after being contacted by the Guardian, the CPS said it would meet again with Nottinghamshire police. "Each case is considered on its own facts and its own merits, and while factors such as an absence of documentation can play a part in a decision as to whether or not a case can be reopened, this is not a factor which would necessarily preclude a case from being considered. It is not the case that new evidence is required to look at a case again," a spokeswoman said. "Nottinghamshire police and CPS East Midlands will be meeting to discuss the victim's case in more detail and to consider it for referral to the child sexual abuse review panel."
While pleased at the "small lifejacket" she has been thrown, Noble says she has lost faith. "After Jimmy Savile I thought, bloody hell, you can get justice. But no you can't," she says.
"Until they tell me they are reopening the case, it's just a pipedream. I can't be hopeful – otherwise I'm just setting myself up for a fall."
By Alexandra Topping
Sitting in a solicitor's office in a smart street in Nottingham, Michelle Noble appears polite, brisk and in control. But the mask slips when she recalls the moment she says she was raped by a Nottinghamshire policeman when she was just 14.
Noble, now 47, pauses for breath. Tears come and she is back to the incident that sent her life spiralling out of control: "This is the hard bit for me. It still doesn't sit right in my head," she manages. "I didn't fight him, I just did as I was told. I just lay down and let him do what he wanted." At the time, Noble was told there was not enough evidence to prosecute her alleged abuser, but he was forced to resign after being found guilty of "discreditable conduct". And that, she thought, was that.
Three decades later, however, following a difficult road to recovery after drug addiction – provoked, she says, by the ordeal – Noble saw the victims of Jimmy Savile speak out and finally decided she wanted to pursue her own case. But she has got nowhere. Nottinghamshire police say that with no fresh evidence they cannot reopen the case. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has told her that all records relating to her have been destroyed. Once hopeful that the Savile revelations would open the doors to justice, she has been left feeling frustrated and ignored.
Hers is not an isolated experience. Police forces have been inundated with claims of child sexual abuse in the Savile aftermath: a BBC freedom of information request has revealed that in the six months following the revelations that began in October of last year there was a 70% increase in the number of claims made to forces.
But recent figures uncovered by Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, showed that there was a 28% drop in the number of child abuse cases referred by the police to the CPS since 2010. Acknowledging there was a "concern", home secretary Theresa May suggested that hard-to-investigate historic abuse cases such as those involving Savile could be partly to blame for a fall in the proportion of rape, domestic violence and child abuse cases being referred for prosecution, and promised to look into the matter carefully.
Charities and police have also struggled to cope with the number of people coming forward in the past year, says Peter Saunders of abuse survivors' charity Napac.
"It has been overwhelming in the last 12 months – indeed there was a time it felt we might buckle under the strain," he says. "There has been a massive public shift, with people thinking that now they might just get a hearing."
The last 12 months have brought unprecedented shifts in the way child sex abuse cases are dealt with by the judicial service: in June, the then director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, introduced anational child sexual abuse panel to review historic complaints of sex abuse not pursued by police or prosecutors (stressing that he thought the number of cases reopened would be in the hundreds rather than thousands) , and issued new guidelines for dealing with victims.
But despite the new tone, victims of historic abuse – and the forces asked to help them get justice – still face an uphill struggle. The barriers to prosecution – sparse evidence, patchy records and ageing memories – have not disappeared, warns Saunders.
"The reality remains that people who want to bring their perpetrators to justice have very little chance, because these cases are extremely difficult to prove. While there has been a serious shift in the judiciary, on the ground there is still a reluctance to tackle this issue. The risk is that we are setting people up only to let them down again. And that is a tragedy." Noble feels that her case warrants a second look by police and prosecutors. As a 14-year-old she was arrested in a case of mistaken identity and taken to her home in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, by an officer. After she had shut but not locked the door, he followed her into the house. "He opened the door to my bedroom and said to me: 'You want fucking.' And that was it."
Disturbed by the sound of her father coming into the house, the officer threatened Noble, warning that she would be put into care if she spoke out. Having found the officer in her bedroom, her father nonetheless reported the crime, and two days later, after being allowed to take a bath, Noble was taken, alone, to a medical examination. "[The doctor] looked at me with disgust. He said 'Get your clothes off, get in those stirrups and open your fucking legs' […] He looked at my vagina and said 'You've had more fucking prick than a second-hand dartboard, you're nothing but a little slag.'"
She then claims she and her father were subjected to a campaign of harassment by officers urging her to drop charges, until her parents were informed three months later, in March 1981, that there was "insufficient evidence" for criminal prosecution, but the officer would face a disciplinary hearing.
But on 10 August 1981, a month after the hearing at which Noble told her story, the family received a letter from the Police Complaints Board – a predecessor of the IPCC – saying the officer had been "forced to resign". The letter, seen by the Guardian, states: "The Chief Constable is very concerned that the officer should have behaved so irresponsibly, and some measure of his feelings can be gained by the severity of the punishment awarded. He trusts the outcome of your complaint will have reminded other police officers of the high standard of integrity required of them."
When Noble decided to take up the case again, she says she encountered bureaucratic obstacles. She was interviewed by Nottinghamshire police in January, but three solicitor's letters – in May, June and July 2013 – went unanswered. The force contacted the solicitors in September 2013 to say a woman Noble thought had been another victim of the same man had been traced but had nothing to report, and the force said it would not reopen the case. "In light of this there is no new evidence and as such Nottinghamshire Police will not re-open the investigation," said the letter.Deterred but determined, Noble took her case to her MP Gloria de Piero, shadow equalities minister, who has pushed for the evidence to be reexamined and calls Noble's bravery "humbling", adding "time doesn't diminish the horror of such as serious crime and Noble deserves justice".
Nottinghamshire police say they have no record of the disciplinary hearing, or what the "discreditable conduct" charge that the officer faced actually entailed. They confirmed the surname of the officer involved, but would not reveal if he was receiving a police pension. But no documentation of what happened remains, no new witnesses have come forward, those who disciplined the officer have long retired and the then chief constable has died.
Facing what appeared to be a brick wall, Noble has waived her anonymity to speak to the Guardian, in the hope that other potential victims might come forward. "He does need to be held accountable – people need to know what he is," she says.
Her case highlights many of the hurdles that adults abused as children face in seeking a prosecution. Jackie Alexander, head of the professional standards directorate at Nottinghamshire police, said the force had discussed Noble's case with the CPS but had been referred toits guidelines, which allow the decision not to prosecute to be overturned if "the prosecutor who originally decided not to charge or discontinued the case made an error of law or fact", if new evidence has materialised or is due to, or if an inquest sheds light on a death. The force recently supported a woman who came forward with sexual allegations against a police officer and was committed to tackling "abhorrent" abuses committed by officers regardless of when they occurred, she says.
Alexander stresses that, along with public attitudes, police treatment of child victims has completely transformed. "We are in a different place to where we were 30 years ago, both the criminal justice system and the public . I think people are much more ready to believe victims and ready to believe that some people are capable of anything," she says, adding: "I'd like to reassure [Noble] that a 14-year-old today would not be in her situation.""I am genuinely very sorry if [Noble] feels that there is any reluctance on the part of Nottinghamshire police to assist in ensuring that justice is properly served," Alexander says. "We are not reluctant, but we do have to work within the CPS guidance and take account of relevant legislation. We have to work within the law, and there is a lot of law to work within."
However, after being contacted by the Guardian, the CPS said it would meet again with Nottinghamshire police. "Each case is considered on its own facts and its own merits, and while factors such as an absence of documentation can play a part in a decision as to whether or not a case can be reopened, this is not a factor which would necessarily preclude a case from being considered. It is not the case that new evidence is required to look at a case again," a spokeswoman said. "Nottinghamshire police and CPS East Midlands will be meeting to discuss the victim's case in more detail and to consider it for referral to the child sexual abuse review panel."
While pleased at the "small lifejacket" she has been thrown, Noble says she has lost faith. "After Jimmy Savile I thought, bloody hell, you can get justice. But no you can't," she says.
"Until they tell me they are reopening the case, it's just a pipedream. I can't be hopeful – otherwise I'm just setting myself up for a fall."
