Police end sexual assault case against Podiatrist

Case study summary

Our client was a podiatrist who had been accused of sexually assaulting three patients while treating them.

We represented him at his police interview and wrote to the police and CPS to persuade them to end their case due to the gaps in the allegations.

Case study

We were approached by this client to persuade the police and CPS to drop the case against him. He had been accused by three of his patients of sexual assault during treatments.

Police confirmed that they had consulted with another podiatrist who claimed to be able to provide expert evidence that would suggest our client had sexually assaulted the complainants.

It transpired that all three complainants knew one another and had alleged that they had been sexually assaulted in the course of their examinations. It was apparent from the details of their allegations that there had been a misunderstanding and that our client had not sexually assaulted them.

With regard to the police expert, it became clear that he was a competitor of our client who may have benefited from having disrupted our client's business. His statement to the police was also inaccurate and indicated that he was making assertions that did not line up with the procedure for examining patients.

We took detailed instructions from our client and prepared lengthy representations setting out his process, skills and expertise. All of which meant that he was especially capable of performing his role and had in fact not fulfilled the necessary elements to have committed a sexual assault.

We wrote to the police and CPS to highlight the flaws across the case. They were persuaded and left with no choice but to end their case.

Our client's business had been disrupted by the lengthy police investigation and he was especially relieved to be able to go back to his profession.