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Wednesday, 16 June 2004 |
King (FF 8782) HMP Maidstone, County Road, Kent ME14 1UZ. 9/6/2004
John Batt, in his Ebury Press "Sally Clark's Story", makes several detailed
points about the police conduct of investigations that precisely describe
the extraordinary dawning realisation that affects many victims of false
allegations or accusations.
Sally Clark tells herself "They have to do this to satisfy themselves that
there has been no wrongdoing. If we cooperate completely, answer their
questions, we have nothing to fear. This has to be either a huge mistake
or a fact gathering exercise. If we go along with them it will sort itself
out". Batt continues......
Lawyers may find it strange that two solicitors, one the daughter of a
senior policeman, should be so naive. Although I am a solicitor, before my
involvement in the Sally Clark case I might have said that telling the
truth was the sensible thing to do., even when arrested for murder. NO
LONGER. Not after what is to happen in this case.
He continues, and I cannot stress this too seriously...
If anyone is arrested for anything...they should refuse to answer any
questions without a criminal lawyer's advice.
The hawks of child abuse are so adept at persuading juries to
convict....that any answer, no matter how innocent sounding, may be
regarded as incriminating. Innocense and honesty are no protection against
a prosecution...that will almost certainly lead to a conviction.
Batt describes Sally's attitude, which precisely mirrors that of most of
us....she does everything she is told to do. Because of what her father
was, Sally respects the force he served in. She knows that police
officers are human; they make mistakes but they are only doing their job.
Batt then details the procedure at the police station....
Any lawyer in their right mind knows that before anyone is arrested there
must be evidence that a crime has been committed and that no questions
should be answered until full details of the allegations have been
disclosed and a criminal lawyer is present to advise on what should and
should not be answered but neither Sally nor (her husband) Steve is
thinking straight. Their behaviour has the hallmark of innocence. It is
to be much admired but it is naive. Many non lawyers believe that, if you
have commmitted no crime, you have nothing to fear from the English
criminal justice system. The adversarial system makes this the OPPOSITE
of the reality.
She does not know it but Sally, by answering everything as fully and
honestly as she can, is writing the prosecutor's opening speech at her
trial, handing him his case against her on a plate. It is not so much what
she says as the way unguarded answers may make her look guilty. Phrases
may be taken out of context and seen in isolation when they warrant full
explanation.
John Batt then makes the crucial point which relates to so may wrongful
convictions.
Because the system is adversarial... one side tries to win a game of
complicated rules, the other tries to defeat it....IT IS NOT A SEARCH FOR
THE TRUTH. This is not to say that the police have conspired to convict
Sally of a crime they know she did not commit; it is simply the way the
adversarial system has to be played if they are to win.
I cannot tell you how true this is found to be for many of us who have
suffered miscarriages of justice. The ultimate and greatest shock to our
faith in British law is when we discover, as we do, that police will do
virtually anything to secure a conviction. Assist witness statements;
provide them with evidence obtained elsewhere; give them facts they didn't
know...it all happens as a matter of course.
John Batt says of Sally Clark's police station experience...
The officers are friendly. The atmosphere is relaxed. The urge to
cooperate with authority is so compelling that it is irresistable to most
ordinary people. It goes against every instinct to prevaricate; to refuse
to answer questions. You will say conviction for murder of a child that
turns out, three years later, to have been cot death, is not the same as
indecent assault or hstoric claims against teenage boys or accusations of
marital rape or celebrity exaggerations by greedy or deluded
failures....but the experiences exactly mirror those of other victims of
police misconduct.
John Batt's book is a fascinating revelation into the methods, both police
and legal, used to convict innocent people of crimes they did not commit.
JK
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