The Context and Impact of Being Wrongly Accused of Abuse in Occupations of Trust
| Date | 01 June 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12199 |
| Published date | 01 June 2017 |
The Howard Journal Vol56 No 2. June 2017 DOI: 10.1111/hojo.12199
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 176–197
The Context and Impact of Being
Wrongly Accused of Abuse
in Occupations of Trust
ROS BURNETT, CAROLYN HOYLE
and NAOMI-ELLEN SPEECHLEY
Ros Burnett is Research Associate and Carolyn Hoyle is Director, Centre for
Criminology, University of Oxford; Naomi-Ellen Speechley is PhD candidate,
School of Law, University of Manchester
Abstract: In recent years, there has been rising concern that allegations of sexual abuse,
particularly non-recent abuse, have not received an appropriate response. From this
has emerged a new determination to correct past and prevent further injustices, with
police operations focusing considerable resources on the identification and prosecution of
child abusers. Police and other services have reached out to encourage reporting, and
developments in the trial process related to the rules of evidence have eroded due process
protections for suspects. This article considers this changed legal and social context, and
the processes entailed in responding to allegations of abuse, before presenting original
empirical data, gathered from the accounts of 30 men and women who were wrongly
accused of abuse related to their employment in occupations of trust. It demonstrates the
considerable and lasting harms done to those who face allegations of such heinous crimes.
Keywords: victims of sexual abuse; police investigations of non-recent abuse;
rules of evidence; wrongful accusations
Recent years have seen rising concern that allegations of sexual abuse,
particularly non-recent abuse, have not received an appropriate response.
Among politicians,1criminal justice agencies2and charities3in the UK,
there is a collective sense of remorse that reports of abuse were often
not properly investigated and that those who reported it were often not
believed. Investigations into the abuse of children in care and residen-
tial schools in North Wales and northern England in the late 1990s were
behind much of this unease. After some former staff were convicted of
non-recent offences, there were widespread claims published in the media
that abuse in such settings had been systemic, the work of ‘paedophile
rings’ that sometimes ‘farmed out’ victims to outsiders (Sawyer 2012). Ac-
cording to Webster (2005), between January 1998 and May 2001, 34 of
the 43 police forces in England and Wales undertook investigations of
176
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2017 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK
The Howard Journal Vol56 No 2. June 2017
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 176–197
non-recent institutional child abuse. While no organised paedophile rings
in care homes were identified,4fears of failing to bring to justice those sus-
pected of such serious abuse changed the political and media landscape in
ways that are still unfolding with the more recent allegations made against
high-profile suspects. As we write, a new and shocking scandal of alleged
widespread sexual abuse in football – being hailed as ‘bigger-than-Savile’ –
is dominating our news media.
The reported prevalence of child abuse, rape and other sexual offences,
both recent and historical, has risen steadily in recent years, reaching a
new high in 2015, when rapes (34,741) and other sexual offences (68,873)
were at the highest level recorded since the introduction of the National
Crime Recording Standard in the year ending March 2003 (Office for
National Statistics 2016). According to HM Inspectorate of Constabulary,
the intense publicity afforded to inquiries such as ‘Operation Yewtree’,the
investigation into alleged offences by the late disc jockey,Jimmy Savile, and
other celebrities, have been responsible for part of the recorded increase
(HM Inspectorate of Constabulary 2014).
From this has emergeda new determination to cor rectpast, and prevent
further, injustices of this kind. For example, the report of HM Inspec-
torate of Constabulary (2013), Mistakes WereMade, recommended that each
agency with a duty to safeguard children and vulnerable adults should
implement regular and systematic checks to ensure they comply with
relevant policies and that a system of mandatory reporting should be con-
sidered to ensure that those who become aware of evidence that a child has
been, or is being, abused is under a legal obligation to notify others of their
concerns.
The now beleaguered Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse,
aimed at investigating whether public bodies and other non-State institu-
tions have taken seriously their duty of care to protect children from sexual
abuse in England and Wales, invited victims and survivors of child sexual
abuse to share their experience with the inquiry team, advising that the
information provided will feed into the ‘Truth Project’. However, it had
been running for over a year before it was persuaded, in April 2016, to
hear testimony from those who have been falsely accused, with the then
chair, Hon. Dame Lowell Goddard, referring to ‘the balance which must
be struck between encouraging the reporting of child sexual abuse and
protecting the rights of the accused’.5Meanwhile the police have devoted
ever more resources to investigating allegations of this kind.
While the police are obviously correct in taking seriously the investiga-
tion of allegations of abuse, there has been criticism of some police tactics in
such cases and of changes to the law that weaken suspects’ due process pro-
tections. In an abuse-conscious society, people may incorrectly remember
or interpret events as abusive, or erroneously attribute abuse they suffered
to the wrong person. They may exaggerate a non-criminal incident so that
it is perceived as criminal, or, in some cases, may intentionally makea false
allegation. The risk now is that mistaken or dishonest allegations of child
abuse or rape are more likely to be taken as true, unless there is objective
evidence to invalidate the claim.6Although, as often, the evidence consists
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2017 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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