UCAFAA SPEECH ? 27th September 2003

 Ladies and Gentlemen I am delighted to  be here representing the Historical
Abuse Appeal Panel upon its capital launch here today .
 
I thank my friend Mark Barlow for his kind words of introduction to me and the
Panel . We have been referred to as the two Marks but perhaps we should be
called little and large ?.I am not sure which is which  though !

When talking about a Historical case it has been said :

 This case raises a worrying point of general interest , difficulty and
sensitivity arising out of sexual offences alleged to have been committed many
years prior to trial ?

These are not my words , but the words of the Lord Chief Justice in R V Bell

 So is something going on here ??????.

Well you might think so as the Court also sent John Mayberry to his freedom
after making adverse comment on the issue of Police Trawling
 
And then there was Basil Rigby and my friend Mike Lawson who is happily in
attendance today
 
But we should not get too carried away for there is much still to do ???for
example on the day Mike Lawson was released , John Dent was being led down the
stairs of the Court Appeal having lost his appeal .

I do believe the tide is turning but we need to do much to help it on its way ,
particularly after the poor response from the government to the Home Affairs
Select Committee

That is why the creation of the Panel is so very important.

Well how did it all start? ????..

It all really started about 12 months ago when
I attended a meeting chaired by Claire Curtis Thomas MP who was making a
powerful request for lawyers expert in the field of Historical Allegations to
respond in a unified way.

Trying to get Lawyers to work together ?.now that?s a challenge!

But after the meeting I & Mark Barlow determined something had to be done, we
had an idea of a Panel of Lawyers actually working together. We spoke to our
other colleagues ?Chris Saltrese and David Woods .

But before we moved on the Panel we tried something simple. We spoke to the
Legal Services Commission and told them how important one of the cases was and
we asked for some funding ??.and they said yes

And so we kept asking ??.and as the case to get leave built ..they kept funding
.
In the end we went to the Court of Appeal with £30,000.00 of funding ? every
penny was used up in the investigation and as a result a most important case of
Anver Sheikh was given leave by LJ Rose ? a case of which you will hear more in
the future .

And So then we started with the Panel. We worked harder and then harder still
and slowly the idea became more than an idea and with the support of our friends
we started to create what we have today.

The Panel is not a cure to these false allegations but it is a medicine. I say
that for this reason :

Consider how the Police obtain their edge, they use large scale manpower to
investigate allegations giving operations ?dinky? names but with nothing so
friendly underneath

Large operations , contaminated evidence , questionable investigations methods ,
missing evidence and a rigid timetable then placed upon Defendants to defend
themselves despite the Police often taking well in excess of 18 months to
conclude their enquiry.
No wonder the poor Solicitor and Junior Counsel have had such a difficult time
defending ? it was
"like defending someone blind folded with one hand tied behind your back ?

But the Panel seeks to tackle some of these issues and give some balance back to
the process.
 
It will however never be a cure for that can only come when the government
responds properly to the Home Affairs Select Committee Report and all of our
friends who have been wrongfully accused are released by the Appeal Court

And do not be mistaken to think things will get better , the need continues for
organisation. On 23rd September Merseyside Police confirmed the re-opening of
Operation Care in everything but name. The Personal Injury industry continues to
grow for compensating Victims with the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers
even now setting up its own child abuse section Today we have a Panel and are
now actively recruiting good lawyers to join the steering groups team to drive
forward the appeals of our friends who currently remain at her majesty?s
pleasure .
The Panel uses unique central resources to bring all the evidence in a case
together, we sort the papers and produce databases to assist the lawyer in
preparing an appeal .

For example in one appeal we have been able to show through database cross
referencing that the Police visited a witness over 10 times before he gave a
statement . What were they doing on all those visits?

We hold information concerning all the Police enquiries and provide information
to help lawyers representing individuals work together.
 
But the Panel is more than that , we believe in the highest possible standards
and want to encourage those standards in legal teams . We will provide on going
training and supervisory support to ensure all of our panel members deliver

We are currently in discussions with the Legal Services Commission over funding
of the  work of the panel . We have also opened a dialogue with the CCRC as  to
working with them in Historical Allegations

It must be remembered throughout that we owe it to our friends to do something.

And So today we have started and we owe it to our friends to do so .

The Panel is a strong challenge to the inherent bias to the current system and
we must not rest until all our friends are back with us ? we owe it to them !
The time has come to work together !



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