Client with Dementia Not Guilty of Sexual Assault

Case study summary

Our elderly client was accused of sexual assault. From our first meeting, it was clear to us that he was suffering with dementia. We obtained evidence to confirm this and successfully applied for the case to be stopped. Not Guilty verdicts were returned in respect of all charges.

Case study

Our elderly client had been practicing as a chiropractor since the 1990s. In 2021, he was accused of sexual assault by 3 separate women who said that he had asked them to remove their tops and then proceeded to massage their breasts - these women had all attended multiple previous appointments and never had any issues before then. The client instructed us following his initial interview with the police and, at our first meeting with him, we immediately noticed that something was wrong as he appeared to be showing signs of dementia.

We arranged for our client to be assessed by an expert psychiatrist who confirmed that our concerns were correct. We then considered whether the dementia could have explained the allegations, if true, as they were so out of character for our client who had never received such a complaint during the 30 years he had been working as a chiropractor. Our expert confirmed that, because dementia is a degenerative illness, our client is likely to have been suffering with dementia at the time of the allegations.

Contact was then made with the Crown Prosecution Service to inform them of our expert's views and the fact that our client had been diagnosed with dementia. We made representations in an attempt to persuade them that it was not in the public interest to prosecute our client in the circumstances. Both times, the Crown Prosecution Service said that they were pressing on with the case no matter what. However, on the first day of trial, the complainants all confirmed that they had only been told about our client’s dementia that day. The Crown Prosecution Service had not informed them of his illness or considered their views in light of this at all when reviewing the case.

We instructed an experienced criminal defence barrister, Ms Soraya Lawrence of Farringdon Chambers, to represent our client at trial and she made a successful application of no case to answer following the conclusion of the prosecution's case. The judge agreed that the case should not continue as it was clear from our expert's report that, because of the nature of our client's illness, the sexual intent element of the offence could not be proven. He directed the jury to return Not Guilty verdicts in respect of all counts on the indictment.

Sadly, our client's dementia had deteriorated significantly during the proceedings and by the time his case concluded, he did not have any memory of it. Nevertheless, his family were extremely pleased with the result and the fact that their father and grandfather's good character remained in tact.