rudloescene.co.uk - Victim II

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Here you will find news, articles and photos of an area that straddles the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in north-west Wiltshire.

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5th November 2021 ... now another egregious miscarriage of justice perpetrated by Wiltshire Police over an incident that occurred in Warminster in 1980.

HM and myself recently watched Code of a Killer (about the establishment, by Professor Alec Jeffreys, of DNA profiling in the mid-80s and its use in catching double-murderer Colin Pitchfork) for the first time and realised (again!) the great benefit that DNA profiling has brought to forensic analysis. However, like any such significant advance, it may and does have potential and actual deficiencies when used incorrectly or maliciously.

The reader may realise that there lies a tangible, real-life story behind the paragraph above ... it follows a cold case review, initiated by Wiltshire Police, of an incident from the last century; ironically, an incident that didn't even make the pages of local newspapers. Why then would Wiltshire Police choose to review such an incident?

DNA profiling has become the 'trump card' in the cases where it is possible to be used (as in the Pitchfork case) and the police know this. But what if the police cannot be trusted to be an honest broker? What safeguards are in place to ensure that deception cannot be perpetrated? What if the police have an axe to grind against certain individuals? I ask these questions as I have discerned that, following a recent case, the answers to the questions are: the police cannot always be trusted; safeguards appear to be insufficient and the police have demonstrated through their actions that they can and do have axes to grind. That is certainly true in the case in question.

Our team, solicitor Mohsin Afsar, barrister Andrew Baker, KCs Orlando Pownall and Stephen Vullo and special investigator William Merritt, have been endeavouring to uncover the truth. 'We' continue to seek a review of the DNA 'evidence' - see the update below. Other avenues are also being pursued but the wheels of 'justice' are very slow to turn. It is certainly the case that the justice system is rooted in process and procedure; facts and analysis of same don't come into it, they are ignored, brushed aside or 'rubbished' under cross-examination but at the root here lies Wiltshire Police who are untrustworthy - see also the first 'Victim' webpage: Victim

Oh that there was an honest officer at Wiltshire Police who has a conscience about contriving cases against innocent people. An officer with the mettle to reveal what has taken place behind the scenes in order to fabricate evidence in this case and others. It would take some guts to do that but let’s hope there’s at least one officer with a sense of decency in Wiltshire Police.

An update ... we have been in touch with one of the foremost forensic scientists in the VISAGE Consortium (Visible Attributes Through Genomics) - see https://www.visage-h2020.eu/, Dr Walther Parson of the Institute of Legal Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck, who has advised on the use of DNA methylation (also known as Horvath's Clock or the epigenetic clock) in determining the age of an individual (with a time 'window' of about 5 years either way) at the time that a DNA sample was taken. In a practical sense, this would differentiate between, for example, a 30-year-old's and a 60-year-old's DNA. However, it seems that there is just not enough material in 'our' 40-year-old slides/tapings to enable such a test. Now, in 2024, after years of attempting to find the key* to the supposed DNA 'match', we have aquired the services of a prominent forensic scientist in Washington (state) who has, in 2024, produced a report which we hope will lead to an appeal.

* We have consulted experts such as Jo Millington of Millington Hingley who has been extremely helpful through face-to-face meetings, email exchanges and, not least, the production of a number of reports, all pro bono. Also consulted were Mike Appleby of Keith Borer Consultants who was likewise very helpful and Professor Denise Syndercombe-Court of King's College. Apart from the justice system itself being in a state of disarray (and permeated by dishonesty and pretence), we have found that the world of forensic science also has its con artists. We have come to discover that 'our' (defence) forensic scientist, James Clery BSc(Hons) MSc MRSB CBiol MRSC FLS MAE MEWI MIABPA ACS BCE, is a charlatan (as described by our barrister) and a crook (that's my description).

9th September 2024 - International Falsely Accused Day

The rudloescene reader will be aware of the egregious case of Andy Malkinson who was released in 2023 having spent 17 years in prison for a crime of which he was entirely innocent (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-66302740). This case illustrates a side of the justice system along with the subject of this article which is that in spite of the police service's commitment to maintain the highest levels of honesty and integrity and to prevent corrupt, dishonest, unethical or unprofessional behaviour, a completely different picture emerges when we discover what is really happening within the justice system. Greater Manchester Police's Assistant Chief Constable said: "The force was 'truly sorry' over the 'grave miscarriage of justice' in the Malkinson case" - twenty years too late. But this is just the tip of the iceberg regarding the police's malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance and then we come to the false accusations...

Our interest in International Falsely Accused Day was brought about through the Victim II case (the 5th November 2021 article above) and the other Victim case - article here: Victim. We attended one of the two UK events at the Tower of London, the other being in Liverpool. The speeches by Margaret Gardener (the founder of the Falsely Accused Support Organisation (FASO - https://youtu.be/3M6oA0qvRhk), Brian Buckle (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-66928735), Brian Hudson of Falsely Accused Carers & Teachers (FACT - www.factuk.org), Sean Parker of Empowering the Innocent (EPI - https://empowerinnocent.wixsite.com/etiwebsite), Dr Kevin Felstead (author of Memory & Injustice), Johnathan King (see https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-45088996) and William Merritt (www.merrittinternational.com) were heartfelt and powerful. William is a private investigator and author who is working with us on the Victim II case; he is the author of the book Rolf Harris* which reveals the truth behind the trials and that Rolf was the victim of false accusations - the cover and first page of the book's 'Conclusion' chapter may be found in the gallery below. * I have a copy which can be loaned to the rudloescene reader

Talking of powerful speeches, that by Anne Widdecombe at the 2023 Falsely Accused event in London is well-worth a look/listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztUAkFi2D3I. The video of this year's event has been produced by Anna Doherty of Spoken Injustice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-iphwKW8J0; Anna's observations (below the video) are significant and include the issue of the "believe the victim" approach, which, although well-intentioned, risks distorting the foundational principle of justice—that one is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

There are a number of organisations dedicated to the falsely accused and their families among which are:

www.false-allegations.org.uk

https://memoryandinjustice.co.uk/

www.spokeninjustice.net

www.factuk.org

Of the many books on the subject, I have included the covers of four in the gallery below. In the introduction to Sandra Lean's book No Smoke - The Shocking Truth anout British Justice, we find the following 'In the decade 1989 - 1999, the Court of Appeal overturned more than 8470 criminal convictions, that is 770 successful appeals every year'. Below the gallery of book covers, you may find photos of today's event at the Tower of London.

The Conclusion of William Merritt's (who was a detective with the New Zealand Police) book Rolf Harris ends with the following regarding the final examination paper for the post of detective constable: 'Question: What is the purpose on an interview? Answer: To obtain the truth.' He says that this is something that has always stayed in his mind and hopefully stood him in good stead for the last 50 years.

However, we find from the Secret Barrister's books, and from our own experience, that a barrister's responsibility is not with respect to the truth but is to the court and his or her client. Cases are presented by the police in a prejudiced manner having made little or no attempt at an impartial investigation towards the truth (see Victim) and the adversarial nature of our justice system clouds matters further. This results in a twisted, warped perception of events leaving the jury (and the court) effectively in the dark with regard to the true story.

A civilised society should be able to trust its legal system to have justice at its heart. From this justice comes the peace and freedom we all crave - illustrated by the tree of justice above. Our judicial system is so far from this ideal that it could be characterised as a dream that has turned into a nightmare.

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