Client accused of historic sexual allegations - NFA

Case study summary

Our client was under investigation on suspicion of historic sexual allegations along with members of his family. Following conversation and representations by our firm, the police confirmed that they would be taking no further action.

Case study

Our client was arrested on suspicion of historic sexual allegations. This came to light following a report by his biological cousin who is a serving inmate following a lengthy custodial sentence. At his police interview he was represented by another firm of solicitors. Our client was frustrated that his current solicitors did not take a proactive approach and would not take his telephone calls. As such, he instructed us to represent him going forward.

During our initial consultation, we spoke to our client in length about the allegations. Our client's understanding was that the allegations date back to the late 1970's when he was a barely a teenager. He explained that his cousin had made allegations that our client along with his brother and engaged in experimental sexual behaviour on several occasions during family sleepovers. His cousin alleged he was only 5 years old at the time. Our client also informed us that he knew the complainant was serving a lengthily custodial sentence and had a parole hearing upcoming, which, if successful, would likely mean he would be released from prison. Our client felt this provided significant justification for the complainant to fabricate the malicious allegations against him.

Our client had never been in trouble with the police in any capacity and had two children studying at university and college retrospectively. He also worked within the education sector, which meant that any criminal charge would leave him suspended and likely dismissed from his current role.

Our first port of call was speaking to the officer in charge and making initial representations over the telephone. Given the timing of the allegations, we felt there was sufficient room for formal representations to be made to the investigating officer.

We made contact with the client's previous solicitor and requested the notes from the client's initial interview. This allowed us to review the police disclosure and sufficiently advise the client on the case against him. We also contacted the officer for regular updates and made it clear that any future updates be provided to ourselves rather than the client.

We held conferences with the client conducted in a careful and a pragmatic way, as our client's memory of the period in question was understandably patchy. Throughout the investigation, we ensured to keep the client fully informed and supported him every step of the way.

The police eventually contacted our offices to confirm the investigation had been dropped with no further action taken.