Sally Clark |
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 |