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CPS FAILINGS
CPS failings: Paedophile trial collapses over lurid claims of ‘serial fantasist’
David Brown, Chief News Correspondent January 19 2018, 12:01am, The Times
Stephen Glascoe, a retired GP who was among the alleged abusers, called for a national inquiry
Charges against five men accused of being in a paedophile ring have been dropped two weeks before their trial after prosecutors admitted having concerns about the alleged victim’s evidence. During controversial regression therapy the woman had recalled being abused throughout childhood, and she had exchanged hundreds of emails and text messages with the officer in charge of her case.
Her alleged abusers, including a retired GP and social worker, yesterday called for a national inquiry into the handling of rape and sex abuse cases by police and prosecutors. They have described the woman as a serial fantasist.
Patrick Graham had been due to stand trial at the end of this month
The alleged victim received £22,000 from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority with the support of the police after contacting officers in 2012, despite later refusing to co-operate. She contacted South Wales police again in 2016 and made lurid allegations about being abused at parties between the ages of 3 and 15, including being given a forced abortion and being made to take part in the torture of other children.
As a result of her claims Stephen Glascoe, 67, a retired GP, Patrick Graham, 61, a retired social worker, and three other men were due to stand trial on January 29 accused of being part of a gang that allegedly raped and tortured children in Cardiff in the 1990s.
Defence lawyers called for the Crown Prosecution Service to drop the charges after receiving evidence about the woman’s therapy and her relationship with Detective Constable Beverly Norman.
Christopher Clee, QC, defending Dr Glascoe, wrote that the woman had “throughout manipulated the proceedings, disclosing incidents of alleged abuse as and when it suits her purposes; these allegations emerging through counselling sessions which in themselves are of dubious standing”.
He added: “She has found a powerful ally in the police, who have acted upon her allegations without question, ignoring obvious lines of inquiry and seeking to undermine potential evidence that contradicts her allegations.”
Police knew that as a teenager the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had admitted making a false allegation of rape after a night out. A decade ago she contacted a police force claiming to have been raped by a fellow guest after appearing on a BBC programme talking about her alleged abuse. No charges were brought.
While the men were awaiting trial the woman complained to police that one of them had sent her an Amazon package that included wires twisted in the way she claimed her hands had been bound while being abused. She later admitted that she ordered the item herself.
Judge Thomas Crowther directed not guilty verdicts to be entered on all charges at Newport crown court on Monday after the CPS said it was dropping the case because there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.
The judge said he expected there would be internal police proceedings as a result of the collapse of the case. The police had disclosed that Ms Norman and the woman had exchanged 1,000 text messages, 530 emails and 118 telephone calls during the 18-month investigation.
Dr Glascoe alone has spent more than £100,000 on legal costs. He was accused of rape, performing a forced abortion on the woman in the attic of his family home and inducing a child to commit acts of gross indecency.
A consultant gynaecologist said that the woman’s account of the abortion was physically impossible and appeared to be based on portrayals of abortions in the film Vera Drake and the BBC Series Call the Midwife.
Dr Glascoe said: “My solicitors appeared cautiously optimistic but as far as I was concerned [the case] was on a knife-edge. We have been living in fear. This issue of automatically believing complainants [in sexual abuse cases] conflicts with the requirement of an objective investigation.”
He criticised Alison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions, for telling the BBC last year that many men cleared of rape were not falsely accused.
“Does Alison Saunders still believe that I am guilty? Surely not,” he said. “Does she accept that a miscarriage of justice has been narrowly averted? While I feel bitter about the way the police have dealt with this they have only been following orders right from the top.
“It was not long ago that women who were victims of rape were denied justice because the police did not believe them. Then after Jimmy Savile everything changed, and the pendulum has swung too far the other way.
“Allegations must be treated seriously but not unquestionably and believed from the outset. Rape and serious sexual assaults are common and false allegations are rare, but I know what happened to me is not unique.”
He said he was alarmed that police were supporting applications for criminal injuries compensation without securing a conviction. “It is not surprising that false allegations are made when there is the incentive of cash compensation,” he said.
Mr Graham, who was charged solely with indecent assault, said: “The police believed everything she [the complainant] said and even when she changed her story they continued to accept it all. She is a serial fantasist who has admitted making up allegations before. They were willing to wreck five families’ lives on the police altar of better statistics for rape prosecutions.”
A South Wales police spokesman said: “Throughout any investigation we regularly communicate with the victim in order to offer them support and keep them updated on progress.
“This particular case involved a vulnerable woman who required additional support, not only throughout the investigation but in the lead-up to the court case.
“She lived outside Wales, which meant that officers had to rely on electronic means of communication, such as text messages and email.”
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