Student accused of rape: ‘I’ve spent two years living in fear’
Page Description
Read about Liam Allan’s case in The Times, highlighting his wrongful prosecution and the broader implications for the justice system.
Lillan Allan, a criminology student finds himself in the hands of the justice system from one moment to the next.
At the eleventh hour, the wrong justice takes a different turn: the case comes to the surface as a result of the intervention of the prosecutor, who moves the hearing up a day. The prosecutor is interviewed in several videos. Example video 4.
A court case that should never have happened,
that has turned Liam’s whole life upside down for two years, falls apart.
Lillan Allan, een criminologie student komt van het ene moment op het andere in de handen van justitie.
Te elfder ure krijgt de foute justitie een andere wending: de kwestie komt aan de oppervlakte als gevolg van de tussenkomst van de procureur, die de zitting een dag verplaatst. De procureur komt aan het woord in verschillende video’s. Voorbeeld video 4.
Een rechtszaak die nooit ooit had mogen kunnen ontstaan,
die Liam zijn hele leven 2 jaar lang overhoop gooit, valt in elkaar.
Prosecutor: “It’s just sheer incompetence.”
Prosecuting barrister Jerry Hayes says the case against Liam Allan came very close to being a miscarriage of justice.
Jerry Hayes on Liam Allan: ‘The system nearly failed’
Liam Allan had his life turned upside down after he was charged with 12 counts of rape and sexual assault. His trial collapsed in 2017 after police were ordered to hand over phone records. ‘It can’t be just as simple as being made to handover or being able refuse everything being given,’ Allan told the Justice Gap last night. ‘Police need to find a way of extracting evidence from any phone within a reasonable time frame and within a reasonable context. There is valuable evidence on complainant’s phones – not just for the defence, but for the prosecution too. To deny access to that simply means an investigation cannot be completed thoroughly.’
In Allan’s case, the police downloaded 40,000 text and WhatsApp messages from the complainant’s phone but refused to pass this evidence on to the defence, despite repeated requests from Allan’s lawyers for the messages to be disclosed before the trial.
They were told there was nothing to disclose. The case against Allan collapsed three days into his trial at Croydon Crown Court.
As a result of his experience, he set up the Defendant, a support group for defendants.
‘It frustrates me so much because it’s not about giving full access to every bit of a victim’s past – nor is the answer stopping access full stop,’ he said. ‘The reason that victim’s have an issue is because data is being extracted, used or discussed that has no relevance to the case at hand. It’s a knee jerk reaction and it’s not going to help anyone.’
‘Disclosure is still a massive problem and the solution that’s being proposed is disclosure failures can’t happen if we don’t take valuable data to disclose. Its all just ridiculous and this term “digital strip search” is overused and is a way of causing moral panic. It just needs better regulations and training to make all lines of enquiry, including a complainant’s phone, reasonable.’
Liam Allan
Please full article on the link above
1 Failures of Policing LEADING ARTICLE
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the Metropolitan Police have urgent questions to answer. Last week The Times revealed that Liam Allan, a 22-year-old student, spent nearly two years on bail and was put on trial for twelve counts of sexual violence, only because the police had failed to hand over text messages from the alleged victim that would have immediately exonerated him. If Mr Allan’s case is an isolated incident, it is worrying enough. If it betokens a wider phenomenon within the Met, the CPS or the police in general, there is a serious cultural problem in how the authorities approach serious criminal cases, which must be corrected.
Monday December 18 2017 | The Times | Back to menu Thursday December 21 2017 | The Times | Back to menu 3 False rape accusers should be punished LIBBY
Libby Purves
The ordeal of Liam Allan must not have been in vain. The torrent of public and legal outrage following the student’s two years on bail and instant acquittal must not die away. Police and CPS failures must be analysed, punished and made unthinkable. This was a young man facing a 12-year sentence and lifelong stigma for multiple rapes, and it took the prosecuting barrister to save him.
Monday December 18 2017 | The Times | Back to menu 4 Overhaul of disclosure in our justice system LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Sir, Regrettably, we are not surprised by the revelations in Liam Allan’s case: the disclosure system needs an overhaul to take account of the electronic communications in the past two decades (Comment and letters, Dec 18; letters and news, Dec 16.)
Tuesday December 19 2017 | The Times | Back to menu 5 Criminal justice and the collapse of rape trial LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Sir, Further to your report “Judge slams police after man cleared in rape trial” (News and leader, Dec 15), the prosecution decision to offer no evidence in a rape case against Liam Allan was taken after new material emerged after an additional disclosure to the defence. It is regrettable that this disclosure happened at a late stage and I would like to apologise to all parties involved for this.
Saturday December 16 2017 | The Times | Back to menu 6 Judge slams Met Police after Liam Allan cleared in rape trial
David Brown, Chief News Correspondent
Liam Allan, 22, spent almost two years on bail and three days in the dock at Croydon crown court before his trial was halted yesterday.
Friday December 15 2017 | The Times | Back to menu 7 Review of botched rape trial ‘misses point’ says Liam Allan
David Brown, Chief News Correspondent
Yesterday the Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) apologised to LiamAllan, 22, who spent two years on bail awaiting a trial that collapsed on the third day at which point the case against him was dropped.
Wednesday January 31 2018 | The Times | Back to menu
8 Met and CPS apologise to Liam Allan over collapsed rape trial
David Brown
Liam Allan, 22, was brought to trial because a detective denied that the alleged victim’s mobile phone contained evidence proving that she had lied, a review of the case found today.
Tuesday January 30 2018 | The Times | Back to menu
9 Police said I would not go to court, says student falsely accused of rape
John Simpson, Crime Correspondent
Liam Allan, 22, spent two years on bail before the trial in which he was accused of repeatedly raping a former girlfriend collapsed at the eleventh hour last week.
Monday December 18 2017 | The Times | Back to menu
10 Disclosure deals ‘are scaring off rape victims’
David Brown
The collapse of prosecutions, highlighted by the case of the London student Liam Allan, because police failed to disclose evidence that cleared defendants, has led to prosecutors ordering a review of all sex offences cases.
Monday February 26 2018 | The Times | Back to menu
11 Nowadays only one sort of victim gets justice
Dominic Lawson
Sometimes an event is at one and the same time shocking and unsurprising. Take the case of Liam Allan, a 22-year-old criminology student, whose trial for multiple rapes of a former girlfriend was abandoned last week by the prosecution after evidence emerged that these were in fact consensual acts.
Sunday December 17 2017 | The Sunday Times | Back to menu
The trial judge, justifiably aggrieved, lambasted both the prosecutors and the police and ordered an inquiry into the non-disclosure of evidence. The accused man, Liam Allan, even more justifiably aggrieved, said that police and prosecutors were now acting over-zealously in the matter of rape allegations to compensate for their well-documented historical failures to investigate the crime. Mr Allan’s anger is understandable. Even a modest display of detective work would have resulted in the charges being dropped at an earlier stage. Yet as a criminology student himself, Mr Allan will also understand that the exposure of one malicious allegation must not be allowed to create a context in which women are further deterred from reporting rape.
Friday December 15 2017 | The Times | Back to menu 13 Police ordered to declare they are not hiding evidence in rape cases
David Brown, Chief News Correspondent
Procedures were reviewed after the trial of Liam Allan collapsed last month. Police had failed to highlight messages from the phone of his accuser that showed she was lying.
Friday January 12 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 14 Teenager released from prison after police disclose texts clearing him of rape
Frances Gibb, Legal Editor
The case echoes that of Liam Allan, 22, whose rape trial collapsed last month after his barrister ordered police to reveal messages from his accuser which they had previously failed to hand over.
Wednesday January 31 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 15 DPP accused of complacency over justice failures
David Brown
Last month a rape trial in London collapsed when it was revealed that police had not handed over social media messages which revealed that the accuser had lied. Liam Allan, a 22-year-old student, spent nearly two years on bail and was put on trial for 12 counts of sexual violence, only because the police had failed to hand over text messages from the alleged victim that would have immediately exonerated him. At least two other rape prosecutions in London have since collapsed after crucial evidence was disclosed. Scotland Yard is conducting an urgent review of about 30 sex cases but refuses to say how many prosecutions have been halted.
Thursday January 18 2018 | The Times | Back to menu That is the very essence of a law-based society, however uncomfortable it sounds. Last December this newspaper disclosed that Liam Allan, a 22-year-old student, spent almost two years on bail and was put on trial on twelve counts of sexual violence because the police had failed to hand over text messages from the alleged victim that would have exonerated him, and eventually did. In messages to friends the young woman discussed her fantasies of being raped and in a reference to one encounter said: “It wasn’t against my will.” This was plainly important evidence. Other cases have included the clearing of an alleged child rapist after the prosecution was unable to offer evidence. A 19-year-old student at Oxford University, accused of raping a teenager, spent two years on bail until he too was cleared in a belated examination of social media postings and diary entries.
Tuesday February 13 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 17 Rape suspects deserve a fairer deal
Lucy Bannerman
Every rape and serious sexual assault case is being reviewed by the Crown Prosecution Service after four trials collapsed over failures to disclose evidence. Police and prosecutors are trying to avoid cases such as that of Liam Allan, 22, who spent almost two years on bail and was on trial for rape before police handed over text messages that exonerated him.
Tuesday February 13 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 18 Innocent student Liam Allan’s two years of torment
David Brown
Liam Allan had planned initially to take a law degree but later decided to study criminology because he was interested in the wider aspects of the criminal justice system.
Friday December 15 2017 | The Times | Back to menu 19 Peers call for action after Liam Allan trial blunder
Frances Gibb, David Brown
Lord Morris of Aberavon, a former attorney-general, demanded a judge-led inquiry into the lack of disclosure in the trial that could have led to the conviction for rape of Liam Allan.
Tuesday December 19 2017 | The Times | Back to menu 20 We must overhaul the outdated disclosure system
James Keeley
The rule of law is hanging by a thread in the criminal courts in this country. The main problem, as highlighted through the publicity of cases such as Liam Allan, the student falsely accused of rape, is the difficulty of how the disclosure of unused material is approached and handled. It is time for the system to be overhauled and fixed.
Thursday January 18 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 21 Rape case scandal is just ‘tip of the iceberg’
David Brown, Chief News Correspondent | Alexi Mostrous, Head of Investigations
The case of an innocent student put on trial for rape because police withheld evidence is just the “tip of the iceberg”, senior barristers said last night.
Saturday December 16 2017 | The Times | Back to menu 22 University graduates and UK productivity
Mr Allan and others wrongly accused might be given legal aid to sue his complainant for defamation and take action against the police and CPS for neglect of duty.
Monday December 18 2017 | The Times | Back to menu 23 CPS failings Prosecutions chief Alison Saunders is part of the problem, say MP and judge
David Brown
The director of public prosecutions was criticised by politicians and lawyers yesterday after insisting that innocent people were not in jail despite admitting there were “systemic issues” in disclosing evidence.
Friday January 19 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 24 Treasury cuts have crippled justice system
Jerry Hayes
I used to be so proud that I was part of the finest criminal justice system in the world. An independent Bar fighting fearlessly for their clients; a Crown Prosecution Service that would carefully review the evidence; a judiciary independent of government; police forces purged of corruption. But in the past seven months I have prosecuted two trials where serious miscarriages of justice were averted at the 59th minute of the 11th hour.
Friday December 15 2017 | The Times | Back to menu Perpetrators of sexual violence are almost uniquely difficult to prosecute. These crimes are committed in private and leave little evidence. Victims are often reluctant to come forward, fearing social stigma, and when they do, investigators sometimes have to rely on one person’s word against another. Yet in recent years the determination of police to secure convictions, sometimes in the face of evidence of innocence, has led to poor decisions, ruined lives and injustice. It is welcome that Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, is adopting a more common-sense approach.
Monday April 2 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 26 Rapist says texts from victims can prove innocence
Marcello Mega
A man convicted of raping four women is trying to appeal against his sentence after presenting evidence that two of the victims sent him provocative photographs of themselves after they said he raped them.
Saturday April 7 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 27 Police are ‘trained to hide vital evidence’
Frances Gibb, Legal Editor
The scale of the failure by police and prosecutors to disclose vital evidence in criminal cases is exposed today in documents showing that such behaviour is routine and deliberate.
Tuesday April 3 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 28 Stay silent and your attacker could go free, Alison Saunders warns rape victims
Frances Gibb, Legal Editor | David Brown, Chief News Correspondent
Rape complainants who stay silent during the alleged attack risk creating an assumption that they had consented to sex, the director of public prosecutions has said.
Tuesday January 23 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 29 Chief of force that failed crash victims gets Met job
Fiona Hamilton, Crime Editor
The chief constable who stepped down after his force’s disastrous response to a fatal car crash has been hired to tackle Scotland Yard’s disclosure controversy.
Thursday February 15 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 30 Conviction of Philip Queree, who held woman’s breasts during sex, is overturned
Simon de Bruxelles
A medical student who was convicted of indecent assault for repeatedly squeezing a woman’s breasts during consensual sexual intercourse has had his conviction quashed.
Friday January 5 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 31 Cuts blamed for failings in disclosure
Jonathan Ames, Frances Gibb
Failures to disclose evidence to defendants in rape and sexual assault cases are linked to staff cuts in the prosecution service, the attorney-general has been told.
Saturday February 10 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 32 Prosecutors in dock as CCTV clears financier Valentin Krzyzyk of Soho sex assault
David Brown
A judge criticised prosecutors yesterday for failing to hand over crucial CCTV evidence that helped to clear a wealthy financier of groping a woman in a nightclub.
Wednesday January 3 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 33 Missed messages clear boy, aged 17, of rape
Neil Johnston, Midlands Correspondent | Jonathan Ames
A teenage schoolboy has been cleared of rape after his lawyers uncovered key evidence that proved his innocence but was missed by police and prosecutors.
Saturday February 3 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 34 Police making basic disclosure errors, says attorney-general
Fiona Hamilton, Crime Editor
Police and prosecutors are not carrying out basic procedures when it comes to disclosure and there is no excuse for recent failures to uncover key evidence that exonerated or supported the case of defendants, according to the attorney-general.
Monday January 29 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 35 Sex abuse cases to be urgently reviewed after trials collapse
David Brown
Reviews of 30 rape and sexual abuses cases about to go to trial are being prioritised amid growing concern about police failures to reveal evidence.
Wednesday December 20 2017 | The Times | Back to menu 36 Met police to review all live rape cases as second trial collapses
David Brown, Chief News Correspondent | Fiona Hamilton | George Sandeman
An MP who was cleared of rape has called for a nationwide review of the police disclosure of evidence in sexual abuse investigations.
Wednesday December 20 2017 | The Times | Back to menu 37 MPs to quiz prosecutions chief on collapse of rape cases
Richard Ford, Home Correspondent
Every rape and serious sexual assault case in England and Wales is being reviewed by the Crown Prosecution Service after the collapse of trials over failures to disclose evidence.
Friday January 26 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 38 Police chief admits ‘cultural problem’ after evidence failures derail 900 trials
Frances Gibb | Jonathan Ames | Duncan Geddes
Police officers have a “cultural problem with disclosure”, one of the country’s most senior chief constables has admitted as new figures revealed that hundreds of criminal cases have collapsed as a result of prosecution failures.
Wednesday January 24 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 39 Prosecutors don’t know how biased they are
Daniel Finkelstein
I wonder whether Alison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions, has heard this story.
Tuesday January 23 2018 | The Times | Back to menu Frances Gibb, Legal Editor | David Brown, Chief News Correspondent
Rapists will get away with their crimes because police and prosecution failings have undermined public confidence in the justice system, the former head of the judiciary has warned.
Saturday January 20 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 41 Two-year rape case against student Oliver Mears dropped by CPS
David Brown, Chief News Correspondent
A judge criticised police and prosecutors today over the case of an Oxford student who spent two years on bail accused of rape before the case was dropped.
Friday January 19 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 42 Cuddling photos clear man of rape
David Brown, Chief News Correspondent
A handyman accused of rape was cleared yesterday when it was revealed that the police had failed to disclose photographs of him cuddling in bed with the alleged victim.
Tuesday January 16 2018 | The Times | Back to menu 43 The police must stop meddling in politics
Philip Collins
The prime minister became a politician of substance with a speech about the police. In May 2014 Theresa May, then home secretary, told the Police Federation, the profession’s trade union, that successive scandals had called the legitimacy of British policing into question. As she reflects on the sacking of her oldest friend and confidant in politics, Damian Green, she might usefully read it again. When the dust settles on the departure of Mr Green, the role of the police in a democracy will be the issue from this affair that counts.
Thursday December 21 2017 | The Times | Back to menu 44 Detective Mark Azariah removed from duty after two rape trials collapse in a week
David Brown, Chief News Correspondent | Fiona Hamilton, Crime Editor
A Metropolitan Police officer involved in two collapsed rape cases was removed from active duty last night. Detective Constable Mark Azariah was stood down as a “precaution” while the force reviews all open sex abuse cases, prioritising roughly 30 alleged rapes about to go to trial.
December 21 2017, 12:01am, The Times | Back to menu 1 Failures of Policing LEADING ARTICLE
2 Fears for safety of criminal prosecutions LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
3 False rape accusers should be punished LIBBY PURVES
4 Overhaul of disclosure in our justice system LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
5 Criminal justice and the collapse of rape trial LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
6 Judge slams Met Police after Liam Allan cleared in rape trial
7 Review of botched rape trial ‘misses point’ says Liam Allan
8 Met and CPS apologise to Liam Allan over collapsed rape trial
9 Police said I would not go to court, says student falsely accused of rape
10 Disclosure deals ‘are scaring off rape victims’
11 Nowadays only one sort of victim gets justice
12 Rape and Justice
13 Police ordered to declare they are not hiding evidence in rape cases
14 Teenager released from prison after police disclose texts clearing him of rape
15 DPP accused of complacency over justice failures
16 Collapsing Cases
17 Rape suspects deserve a fairer deal
18 Innocent student Liam Allan’s two years of torment
19 Peers call for action after Liam Allan trial blunder
20 We must overhaul the outdated disclosure system
21 Rape case scandal is just ‘tip of the iceberg’
22 University graduates and UK productivity
23 CPS failings Prosecutions chief Alison Saunders is part of the problem, say MP and judge
24 Treasury cuts have crippled justice system
25 Justice Served
26 Rapist says texts from victims can prove innocence
27 Police are ‘trained to hide vital evidence’
28 Stay silent and your attacker could go free, Alison Saunders warns rape victims
29 Chief of force that failed crash victims gets Met job
30 Conviction of Philip Queree, who held woman’s breasts during sex, is overturned
31 Cuts blamed for failings in disclosure
32 Prosecutors in dock as CCTV clears financier Valentin Krzyzyk of Soho sex assault
33 Missed messages clear boy, aged 17, of rape
34 Police making basic disclosure errors, says attorney-general
35 Sex abuse cases to be urgently reviewed after trials collapse
36 Met police to review all live rape cases as second trial collapses
37 MPs to quiz prosecutions chief on collapse of rape cases
38 Police chief admits ‘cultural problem’ after evidence failures derail 900 trials
39 Prosecutors don’t know how biased they are
40 Rape trials under threat
41 Two-year rape case against student Oliver Mears dropped by CPS
42 Cuddling photos clear man of rape
43 The police must stop meddling in politics
44 Detective Mark Azariah removed from duty after two rape trials collapse in a week
