Month: January 2018

Five men that had paedophile ring charges dropped hit out at ‘serial fantasist’ accuser

/ Mike Buchanan / 4 Comments

Our thanks to Rick for this. The start of the piece, emphases ours:

Charges against five men accused of being in a pedophile ring have been dropped two weeks before trial and their accuser labelled “serial fantasist” after it was revealed the woman had made false allegations on multiple occasions.

A medical expert also said that the woman’s account of her backyard abortion – allegedly performed on her by one of the accused – had been lifted from TV show portrayals of abortions on programs like ‘Call the Midwife’ and the film ‘Vera Drake’.

In 2016 the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, made accusations against the men, saying that she had been abused at parties between 3 and 15 years of age. She said she was forced to have an abortion and help the men torture other kids.

The allegations saw retired GP Stephen Glascoe, 67, retired social worker Patrick Graham, 61, and three other men due to stand trial on January 29 for their alleged involvement in a Cardiff pedophile ring in the 1990s.

During her most recent rape accusations, the woman told police that one of the men had sent her a package from Amazon that included wires twisted in the very same way that her hands had been allegedly tied while they abused her. She later conceded that she had actually ordered the parcel herself.

She made another complaint in 2012 that saw her awarded £22,000 in damages from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, despite refusing to cooperate with police during the investigation.

As a teenager, the woman had admitted to making false rape allegations. Ten years ago she also alleged on a BBC program that she had been raped by another guest, but no charges were ever brought…

Patrick Graham, Glascoe’s co-accused who was charged with indecent assault, said: that police simply believed everything she said and “even when she changed her story they continued to accept it.”

“She is a serial fantasist who has admitted making up allegations before,” the retired social worker said. “They were willing to wreck five families’ lives on the police altar of better statistics for rape prosecutions.”

The end of the piece:

A South Wales police spokesman said: “Throughout any investigation we regularly communicate with the victim in order to offer them support and keep them updated on progress.

“This particular case involved a vulnerable woman who required additional support, not only throughout the investigation but in the lead-up to the court case.

“She lived outside Wales, which meant that officers had to rely on electronic means of communication, such as text messages and email.”

Pathetic retweets from Cathy Newman, Channel 4 News

/ Mike Buchanan / 6 Comments

As predicted, Cathy Newman and her colleagues at Channel 4 News are trying to spin criticisms of her woefully unsuccessful attempt at tarnishing Jordan Peterson’s reputation, into a sob story about perfectly valid criticisms being evidence of misogyny. Well, boo hoo. Her cynical and unprofessional interviewing techniques deserved strong language in response, and got it, in spades. Our thanks to Stu for pointing out she’s retweeted a colleague’s comments this afternoon:

 3h3 hours ago

1/2 Our onscreen journalists expect to be held to account for their journalism but the level of vicious misogynistic abuse, nastiness, and threat to is an unacceptable response to a robust and engaging debate with .

 3h3 hours ago

Such is the scale of threat we are having to get security specialists in to carry out an analysis. I will not hesitate to get the police involved if necessary. What a terrible indictment of the times we live in. [J4MB: Cathy Newman is a terrible indictment of the times we live in. She should be fired.]

CPS failings: Prosecutions chief Alison Saunders is part of the problem, say MP and judge

/ Mike Buchanan / 7 Comments

A piece by David Brown in today’s Times, emphases ours:

Alison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions, maintained that the system worked

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.

Alison Saunders was described as “part of the problem” by one Tory MP and “complacent” by a part-time judge after saying that the justice system was working despite failures with evidence leading to a string of trials collapsing.

She met senior police officers, senior representatives of the judiciary and legal professionals yesterday to discuss concerns that vital material is not being disclosed.

Ms Saunders acknowledged in a statement before the meeting: “It is clear that there are systemic issues across the entire criminal justice system. We will be considering what role each of us — police, prosecutors, and judiciary — should play in disclosure and immediate action we can take. We will also discuss whether any changes to systems, legislation or guidance might help address the issues we face.”

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she added: “The problem we have found recently is around the ever-increasing use of social media, all the digital material we obtain.” She suggested that photographs and social media accounts did not need to be fully checked in rape cases despite such evidence having been crucial in clearing a number of recent defendants.

Ms Saunders said that police were obligated to pursue “all reasonable lines of inquiry” but “that doesn’t mean going into every single avenue of your life”.

Asked whether it was possible that there were people in prison because of failures of disclosure, she replied: “I don’t think so because what these cases show is that when we take a case through to trial there are various safeguards in place, not least of which is the defence indicating what their defence is going to be.”

Anna Soubry, the Conservative MP and former minister, said she was “appalled at the ill informed comments” of Ms Saunders.

“Have been longstanding problems with disclosure,” she wrote on Twitter. “Those duties extend to investigation of all allegations not just a few serious offences. I fear Alison Saunders is part of the problem.”

Nick Rhodes, QC, a criminal barrister and part-time judge, wrote on Twitter: “Alison Saunders here displays precisely the complacent attitude that lies at the root of the failures in the approach to disclosure shown by her department and the police.”

A senior prosecutor, who asked not to be named, accused Ms Saunders of being “in denial” and sending the “wrong message”. The prosecutor added: “It is up to the attorney-general now.” [J4MB: … to fire her, presumably. Long overdue.]

Concerns about prosecutions for rape and serious sexual offences have been highlighted since the trial of Liam Allan, 22, collapsed when it emerged that police had texts proving that his accuser had lied. He had spent nearly two years on bail and three days in the dock.

The case against Samson Makele, 28, was halted at Snaresbrook crown court last week after his defence team unearthed images from his mobile phone of him cuddling in bed with the alleged victim which had not been made available. Mr Makele, who said that they had had consensual sex, had spent 18 months on bail.

Ms Saunders said of Mr Makele’s case: “How would anyone have known that there were photographs there until the defence had told us that they were there?” [J4MB: Doh! The police should have picked up the fact, long before.]

She added: “The system worked. What I think should have happened in that case is it should have happened much earlier.”

Rape cases under review
Scotland Yard is reviewing all current rape cases after the trial of a criminology student collapsed last month when it was revealed that police had failed to disclose evidence.

Liam Allan, 22, spent almost two years on bail and three days in the dock at Croydon crown court, south London, before the trial was halted when it was revealed that text and social media messages proved that the complainant had lied. The trial judge demanded a review of disclosure of evidence by the police and warned of the risks of a “serious miscarriage of justice”. The court was told that lawyers for Mr Allan had repeatedly been refused access to records from the woman’s phone because police had insisted it held nothing of interest.

Days later the prosecution dropped charges against Isaac Itiary, 25, after he had spent four months in jail awaiting trial on child rape charges. Lawyers for Mr Itiary, discovered that the investigation had been led by Detective Constable Mark Azariah, also the officer in Mr Allan’s case, and asked for the disclosure of all phone records in the case. Police handed over text messages showing that although the girl concerned was 14 and 15 at the time of the alleged offences she routinely posed as a 19-year-old.

Scotland Yard said before Christmas that its review of investigations into alleged rapes and serious sexual assaults would give priority to 30 cases where trials were about to start. The police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have refused to say how many of those cases have collapsed.

This week it was revealed that Samson Makele, a handyman accused of rape, had been cleared after police failed to disclose photographs of him cuddling in bed with the alleged victim. Mr Makele, 28, hired an expert to retrieve the crucial photographs from his mobile phone after the police said that it contained nothing of interest. Mr Makele met the woman at the Notting Hill Carnival in 2016 and they spent the night at his home. The CPS offered no evidence at a pre-trial hearing.

You can subscribe to The Times here.

National screening for third female-specific cancer being proposed, potential cost £4.2 BILLION

/ Mike Buchanan / Leave a comment

We covered the issue of gender differences in healthcare provision in our 2015 election manifesto (pp. 61-5). More men than women die of cancer. More men die of prostate cancer than women die of breast cancer. At the time of our manifesto, £100m p.a. on the national screening programme for breast cancer, £150m p.a. was being spent on the national screening programme for cervical cancer.

There are, of course, no national screening programmes for male-specific cancers, and provision of resources for treating prostate cancer are poor. We pointed out in our manifesto that there’s a severe shortage of specialist NHS prostate cancer nurses, and prostate cancer patients endure long waiting times, a lack of access to drugs, pain medication, and trials.

Yesterday’s Times carried a piece on a proposed £175 genetic screening test for women. There are around 24 million women in the UK. If all took the proposed test, the cost would be around £4.2 BILLION. One of the cancers being screened for would be ovarian cancer, making it the third female-specific cancer with a national screening programme. The Times piece, by Kat Lay, Health Correspondent:

Offering every woman over 30 a test for cancer-causing gene mutations could prevent tens of thousands of ovarian and breast cancer cases, scientists say.

Public health chiefs said they would look “with interest” at a study showing that national genetic screening would save lives and be cost-effective.

Researchers calculated that if 71 per cent of women took up the £175 test, up to 17,000 ovarian cancers and 64,000 breast cancers could be prevented.

They also found that the move would be cost-effective according to criteria used by health chiefs to judge whether to fund new tests, drugs or treatments.

The research was carried out by a team from Barts Cancer Institute at Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust, supported by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. It is published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

At present women who develop cancer and their female relatives may be offered an assessment of their family history to determine their risk of having the rogue genes. If it is more than 10 per cent, they are offered genetic testing.

Ranjit Manchanda, consultant gynaecological oncologist at Barts, said that this process did not pick up every problem.

“Almost half of the people who are a risk will not give you the family history that fit the criteria. They will be missed. So why shouldn’t we offer it to everybody?” he said.

“Genomics is coming into healthcare in a big way . . . population testing is a way forward — we could maximise its potential for cancer prevention.”

Researchers calculated that screening all women over 30 would offer more benefit than the existing strategy and enough to be deemed cost-effective under National Institute for Health and Care Excellence rules.

Dr Manchanda said: “This could prevent thousands more breast and ovarian cancers than any current strategy, saving many lives.”

The genes that cause most inherited ovarian and breast cancers are mutations of BRCA1 and BRCA2. In 2013 the actress Angelina Jolie announced that she had had a double mastectomy based on family history and a positive BRCA test.

Women carrying either BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations have a 17 to 44 per cent chance of developing ovarian cancer and a 69 to 72 per cent chance of developing breast cancer.

Women without the gene mutations have a 2 per cent risk of ovarian cancer and 12 per cent breast cancer risk. Each year in the UK about 7,400 ovarian and 55,000 breast cancers are diagnosed.

Anne Mackie, director of programmes for the UK national screening committee, said that it would “look at the results of this new research with interest”.

Experts cautioned, however, that further research into acceptability and feasibility would be needed before it could be rolled out.

Gareth Evans, professor of clinical genetics at Prevent Breast Cancer, said: “I would wholeheartedly support this research being taken to the next stage, provided that public health chiefs examine how women would consent to such tests.”

You can subscribe to The Times here.

Oxford University student cleared of rape charge as yet another case collapses days before trial begins

/ Mike Buchanan / 2 Comments

Our thanks to Stu for this. The start of the piece:

An Oxford University student has become the latest accused rapist to have his case dropped against him after two years on bail [J4MB emphasis] amid wider public concern about the actions of police and prosecutors.

Oliver Mears, 19, was told he was to be found not guilty following a review of evidence just days before he was due to go on trial.

The Crown Prosecution Service said it decided to offer no evidence against Mr Mears after reviewing evidence handed to them by Surrey Police, some of which was only received last week. [J4MB emphasis] A police spokeswoman told the Times prosecutors decided to discontinue the trial “for a number of reasons”.