Latest / History Dark / I Am Not A Rapist _ Devastating consequences of False Allegations

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I Am Not A Rapist _ Devastating consequences of False Allegations · History Dark

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: 31st January 2016. It's 8.25pm. Interview with Liam Allen. Liam,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: an allegation has been made by your ex-partner and her
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: allegation is throughout the relationship that you've raped her on
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: a repeat basis. Are you surprised by the allegations?
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Extremely, to be honest with you. It kind of came
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: out of the blue.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: You've never forced her to have sex?
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: No.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: She's never cried and you've continued to have sex knowing
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: that she's in pain or didn't want to have sex?
• 0:35
  Speaker 4: No.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: You never tied her up? Hit her with no buckle?
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: No, no.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: You're saying those are all lies?
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Those are all lies.
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: It's like one of the worst crimes you can do.
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: It's probably on a par with like a paedophile.
• 0:56
  Speaker 5: You know, it takes a real low-life scumbag to do
• 1:04
  Speaker 5: something like that.
• 1:10
  Speaker 6: It is every young man's worst nightmare.
• 1:13
  Speaker 7: If I believe he had done it, it doesn't matter
• 1:16
  Speaker 7: whether he's my brother or not, I don't think I
• 1:19
  Speaker 7: would have supported him through it.
• 1:20
  Speaker 8: I remember seeing three members of the jury glare at
• 1:23
  Speaker 8: me as if I was just this monster.
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: I just thought, if everything goes bad, I'm never.
• 1:32
  Speaker 9: Going to see him again.
• 1:34
  Speaker 8: If they even slightly believed it was true, I'm never
• 1:39
  Speaker 8: coming back from that. So I had just come back
• 1:58
  Speaker 8: from a football match. Everything at that point seemed peaceful.
• 2:04
  Speaker 8: I'd got onto PlayStation, I was playing with my best friend.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: It was just a usual day.
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: Me and Liam were talking on PlayStation at the time.
• 2:13
  Speaker 9: He was at his house, I was at my house.
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: I heard his mum in the background.
• 2:17
  Speaker 10: I was sitting in the lounge and there was a
• 2:18
  Speaker 10: knock at the door. The police turned up and they
• 2:21
  Speaker 10: wanted to speak to Liam.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: What for?
• 2:24
  Speaker 10: We need to speak to him, it's serious.
• 2:27
  Speaker 8: I wasn't dressed, I was in my dressing gown. I
• 2:29
  Speaker 8: was terrified because I couldn't work out why they were there.
• 2:33
  Speaker 10: They jumped on their walkie-talkies saying, surround the flat, surround
• 2:36
  Speaker 10: the flat.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: He just jumped on the headset with me. All I
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: heard was Liam say, I'm being arrested.
• 2:43
  Speaker 8: There was just that chaos. How did I get here?
• 2:46
  Speaker 8: How did this happen? Why on earth am I even
• 2:49
  Speaker 8: being arrested?
• 2:53
  Speaker 10: And then he was gone.
• 3:01
  Speaker 8: I'd been put in my cell and you hear this
• 3:05
  Speaker 8: huge lock. And then hearing that there's been a serious
• 3:12
  Speaker 8: accusation of rape, my jaw dropped. And when they said
• 3:17
  Speaker 8: who had made the accusation, there was fear, anger, betrayal.
• 3:23
  Speaker 8: It's every negative emotion in one.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: So tell me about the interview. Can I smoke before
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: we do?
• 3:33
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: So concentrate on the first time you had sex together.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: She said she's having sex. It becomes very painful for her.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: And she said she asked you to stop. And you
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: said to her, look, you're just going to have to continue.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Anything like that ever happen at all?
• 3:53
  Speaker 11: No.
• 3:55
  Speaker 8: I was absolutely terrified. I couldn't stop shaking. My life
• 4:00
  Speaker 8: is now on the line.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Have you had sex in any unusual places?
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Literally her front room, her bedroom and my front room.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: In my head, I'm screaming out, I'm innocent.
• 4:14
  Speaker 8: And you want to scream it at them and flip
• 4:16
  Speaker 8: the table and throw the chairs, everything, and you can't.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: She says there was one occasion where he tied me
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: to his bed with neckties. At that point, you had
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: sex with her while she was tied up. She said
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: she was visibly crying most of the time.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: This never happened at all.
• 4:40
  Speaker 8: After the interview, I was bailed and then told to
• 4:43
  Speaker 8: just go home. I practically collapsed into my mum's arms
• 4:46
  Speaker 8: because I couldn't breathe. I couldn't quite process what had happened.
• 4:52
  Speaker 8: We were all just in tears. That's the moment when
• 4:55
  Speaker 8: my freedom went. And in a way, I haven't fully
• 4:58
  Speaker 8: got my freedom back.
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: It's my fifth tattoo in the space of two weeks.
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: That's got to be bad, hasn't it?
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: That's a good thing.
• 5:20
  Speaker 9: In the summer of 2019, Ashley was arrested on suspicion
• 5:25
  Speaker 9: of rape.
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: I know they do hurt, but not in a bad way.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: Exactly.
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: You know, they do hurt in a sort of relief
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: sort of way.
• 5:35
  Speaker 7: Even what he's told me and all that, he's going
• 5:38
  Speaker 7: through a bad time.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: So he needs a bit of pepping up.
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: Cheers, pal.
• 5:52
  Speaker 9: Ashley's case began after a friend asked for his help.
• 5:58
  Speaker 9: She was having trouble with her boyfriend.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
• 6:21
  Speaker 9: Ashley drove to pick up his friend. Once safely in
• 6:25
  Speaker 9: the car, she told him what had happened.
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: My friend asked me to go pick her up because
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: she needed to get away from her boyfriend. He's angry,
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: he's being really aggressive with her. So we took a
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: drive up to this exact spot. So this is where
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: the alleged sexual assault happened.
• 6:51
  Speaker 9: How are you feeling coming back up here?
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: Innocent.
• 6:59
  Speaker 9: So what happened up here?
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: We sat in the car for a bit. We listened
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: to some music. And we started laughing and giggling. And
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: then she started telling me about the time she used
• 7:10
  Speaker 5: to have a crush on me when we was in college.
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: We started kissing each other. And then we both looked
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: at each other and we said, should we go in
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: the back? And then it happened. She started taking my
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: clothes off. She took her own clothes off. We started
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: kissing some more and then we had consensual sex. I
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: started taking her home. She wanted to ring the police
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: to get her partner removed. So she dialed 999. She
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: said he was being really aggressive with her, and she
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: didn't feel safe. She wanted him removed from the property.
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: Didn't hear a thing then until the next day.
• 8:05
  Speaker 9: The following day, Ashley got a text from the girl's boyfriend.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: DOG BARKS.
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: The next thing I know, police open my door. Four
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: police officers turned up. They arrested me. It was scary.
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: And that's when it all slowly started collapsing.
• 8:35
  Speaker 9: Ashley was taken to the police station, arrested on suspicion
• 8:39
  Speaker 9: of rape.
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: The first cell they put me in, there was stale
• 8:43
  Speaker 5: pee in and over the toilet. It was freezing cold.
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: I was pacing, I was anxious.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: How did they treat you?
• 8:54
  Speaker 5: Like a scum, pretty much, like an animal.
• 8:58
  Speaker 9: Ashley was interviewed under caution, where he admitted to having
• 9:01
  Speaker 9: consensual sex with the complainant.
• 9:05
  Speaker 5: Before I was released, they said, the only way we
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: can release you is if you have a session with
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: our nurse. I was headbutting the wall. I was having
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: really bad thoughts. I was just, you know, what's the point?
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: Being arrested for something you didn't do.
• 9:33
  Speaker 12: Everybody knows we have a crisis with men getting away
• 9:36
  Speaker 12: with rape.
• 9:37
  Speaker 7: For years, this country's failure to send more rapists to
• 9:40
  Speaker 7: jail has raised questions about how the criminal justice system
• 9:44
  Speaker 7: handles sexual violence.
• 9:47
  Speaker 8: People still believe that these things happen to bad people and.
• 9:52
  Speaker 11: Therefore I must be a bad person. There's a stigma
• 10:04
  Speaker 11: attached to it.
• 10:05
  Speaker 10: There's absolutely nothing you can do to stop it.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Nothing.
• 10:11
  Speaker 10: Because everyone says they're innocent, right? And everyone says their
• 10:15
  Speaker 10: son's innocent. That's what mum's saying. I'd always want to
• 10:21
  Speaker 10: believe the victim in the sense of having been there,
• 10:25
  Speaker 10: having had friends been there, knowing the experiences that many
• 10:29
  Speaker 10: women have gone through. But I've got a close enough
• 10:32
  Speaker 10: relationship to know I know my son. No-one would be
• 10:34
  Speaker 10: able to carry those colours and then suddenly be something else.
• 10:44
  Speaker 9: Liam and the complainant met when Liam was just 18.
• 10:48
  Speaker 8: I'd been in a couple of relationships before, but for
• 10:51
  Speaker 8: me that was my first proper serious relationship.
• 10:54
  Speaker 13: I actually met Liam whilst he was in a relationship
• 10:57
  Speaker 13: with the girl who became the complainant. I was at
• 11:01
  Speaker 13: the time in the kind of fledgling stage of my relationship.
• 11:05
  Speaker 13: We'd go to places like mini golf, go to the
• 11:08
  Speaker 13: cinema a lot.
• 11:10
  Speaker 9: But after two years and with university on the horizon,
• 11:14
  Speaker 9: the relationship petered out.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: We just weren't getting on. There's no other way of
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: putting it.
• 11:27
  Speaker 8: When we'd gone for dinner, I remember the whole time
• 11:30
  Speaker 8: she'd spent on her phone. That was when the conversation
• 11:33
  Speaker 8: flowed of, actually, no, it's not working for either of
• 11:35
  Speaker 8: us anymore. I think I walked her to the bus
• 11:38
  Speaker 8: stop and hugged her at the bus stop and then
• 11:41
  Speaker 8: made my way home as she got on the bus.
• 11:44
  Speaker 8: And that was the last point of contact that we had.
• 11:51
  Speaker 9: Four months later, she contacted the police and made the
• 11:54
  Speaker 9: allegations of multiple rape against Liam.
• 12:13
  Speaker 8: After the interview, that's kind of where everything becomes quite
• 12:15
  Speaker 8: blurry because the nightmares never go away.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: And they're not.
• 12:20
  Speaker 8: Nightmares in the sense of they're dreamt up scenarios.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: They are flashbacks.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: You've not had any outdoor sex with her?
• 12:27
  Speaker 8: To know that the police were still investigating that and
• 12:30
  Speaker 8: they were still taking it seriously, that for me was terrifying.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: She said you would hold her down, her arms restrained
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: in her. Did she cry?
• 12:39
  Speaker 8: Any one of these things, if they even slightly believed
• 12:42
  Speaker 8: it was true, I'm.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Never coming back from that.
• 12:47
  Speaker 13: When I heard that it was rape, The initial thought
• 12:49
  Speaker 13: was shock, just complete shock. It literally is every young
• 12:53
  Speaker 13: man's worst nightmare. It is one of them things that
• 12:56
  Speaker 13: you think, right, there's no coming back from this now.
• 12:59
  Speaker 13: Once you've been accused, you're going to jail.
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: It's probably on a par with, like, a paedophile or
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: something like that. It's, like, one of the worst crimes
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: you can do.
• 13:06
  Speaker 8: You tell anybody that you're accused of rape, and all
• 13:10
  Speaker 8: of them are going to take one step back and go, well,
• 13:12
  Speaker 8: did you do it?
• 13:24
  Speaker 9: It's been over a month since Ashley's arrest. With his
• 13:27
  Speaker 9: phone seized as evidence, he's borrowed one to inquire about
• 13:31
  Speaker 9: his case.
• 13:37
  Speaker 14: We're connecting you to Gwent Police.
• 13:40
  Speaker 10: Your call is in a queue and will be answered
• 13:42
  Speaker 10: by the next available police operator.
• 13:46
  Speaker 9: Ashley's been bailed pending further investigation. There's no limit to
• 13:50
  Speaker 9: the number of times he can be re-bailed without charge.
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: Hi there, I got accused of a very serious allegation
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: over a month ago now and I just want to know,
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: is there any update on my case?
• 13:59
  Speaker 8: Right, her radio has gone straight off, so I'm imagining
• 14:03
  Speaker 8: she's either in.
• 14:03
  Speaker 15: An interview or possibly in court or something.
• 14:06
  Speaker 16: So I will send you an email asking to give
• 14:08
  Speaker 16: you a call if that's okay.
• 14:10
  Speaker 5: Could you go to email me?
• 14:12
  Speaker 16: You haven't got a number she can ring you on,
• 14:13
  Speaker 16: have you?
• 14:14
  Speaker 5: No, I was just going to ask, is there anything
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: on the system about me having my phone back at all?
• 14:18
  Speaker 9: I can't see anything.
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: Right, okay. Thank you very much.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: All right, no problem.
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: All right, thank you, bye.
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: Bye-bye.
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: Bloody useless. No contact has been made with me or
• 14:31
  Speaker 5: my family. Every time I try and ring, it's the
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: same old story. Oh, we're making more inquiries, we're making
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: more inquiries. It's just the same repetitive things over and
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: over again.
• 14:49
  Speaker 9: In limbo, while he waits to find out if he'll
• 14:51
  Speaker 9: be charged... Ashley is trying to live a normal life.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: Hey, ciao.
• 14:55
  Speaker 10: Hey, ciao.
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: You know, it's a horrible feeling of walking out my
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: front door and, you know, people looking at the other
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: thing and I hear the rest of it was. You know,
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: it takes a real low-life scumbag to do something like that.
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: And when people ask me the question, it makes me
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: feel like, you know, I am that low-life scumbag. So
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: many people have asked me, My nan, mam, friends. Just
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: want to tell them all to fuck off. You know,
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: you shouldn't have to ask that question.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: What does the word rapist mean to you?
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: Scum. They're the only people who should be hanged.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: Ooh.
• 15:52
  Speaker 9: Six months after his arrest, the investigation into Liam continued.
• 15:57
  Speaker 9: He waited with no update from the police.
• 16:01
  Speaker 8: I remember I was always calling the police officer in charge.
• 16:04
  Speaker 8: Has a decision been made?
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: When are we looking? What date are we looking? Have
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: you got a deadline?
• 16:08
  Speaker 8: Because I can't live in limbo here. It's just a
• 16:13
  Speaker 8: state of no motivation. The thought becomes, what's the point?
• 16:23
  Speaker 13: There were times during this limbo period when we were
• 16:27
  Speaker 13: talking to Liam and you could see that he wasn't
• 16:29
  Speaker 13: present in that conversation.
• 16:31
  Speaker 8: When I was by myself, I could literally hear my
• 16:34
  Speaker 8: own heart and it was driving me absolutely insane.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: It was like being back in the holding cell.
• 16:44
  Speaker 13: We're all trying to have these deep conversations and say, look,
• 16:47
  Speaker 13: just open up to us.
• 16:49
  Speaker 6: But we just couldn't seem to get through to him.
• 16:52
  Speaker 6: You feel helpless. You definitely feel helpless.
• 17:07
  Speaker 9: Nearly two months since his arrest and Ashley's had no
• 17:10
  Speaker 9: update from the police. But his job as a delivery
• 17:13
  Speaker 9: driver is now under threat.
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: I was totally honest with him. I went up there
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: and I told him everything that happened. They said I
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: can't go back until the official investigation is over. I
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: asked them if they'd still pay me and they said no.
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: So I'm just getting more and more in debt as
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: the days go on. Just sucks.
• 17:38
  Speaker 9: With his debts mounting, Ashley's meeting a representative from an
• 17:42
  Speaker 9: organisation that supports men falsely accused of rape.
• 17:48
  Speaker 15: Hello, Ashley.
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: Hiya, Margaret. You OK?
• 17:50
  Speaker 15: Nice to meet you, love.
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: Nice to meet you, too. How are you?
• 17:53
  Speaker 12: Sit down.
• 17:55
  Speaker 9: How's things going for you?
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: Rough.
• 17:59
  Speaker 7: How long have you been on bail?
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: Nearly two months now.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Two months, is it?
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 18:04
  Speaker 9: And have they stopped you from working?
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: I've been sacked.
• 18:08
  Speaker 15: What type of work was it?
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: Delivery driver.
• 18:12
  Speaker 12: So how come you can't? But at the moment, you
• 18:16
  Speaker 12: being on bail and the CPS making their decision.
• 18:20
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: Nothing can be done I don't feel like anything's being
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: done I had an email three weeks ago stating that
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: the foster care user hadn't even interviewed yet what am
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: I doing sat on a park bench jobless yeah lifeless
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: People ask me, how am I feeling? They get the
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: same answer, I'm fine, I'm OK. But really, I'm lonely,
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: scared of the world. I even think, you know, am
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: I really cut out for this world? Do I deserve
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: to be here? I was debating whether to do it
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: with my arm or my wrist.
• 19:14
  Speaker 11: And that was instead of attempting suicide? Yeah.
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: I suffered really bad with my mental health. When I
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: was in school one day, I just couldn't take it
• 19:24
  Speaker 5: no more, and I started to cut myself, and that's
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: when I knew I needed help. The more days that
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: go by, the harder it gets for me.
• 19:37
  Speaker 9: How long will it go on for until you hear
• 19:39
  Speaker 9: from the police?
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: I have no idea.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: No idea.
• 20:06
  Speaker 7: It's been too hard to even look at these things
• 20:07
  Speaker 7: so I haven't done what I'm supposed to do with
• 20:10
  Speaker 7: half of these things yet. I've got a picture of me,
• 20:15
  Speaker 7: my mum and my brother. That's one of the toy
• 20:21
  Speaker 7: planes he had in his bedroom. This is my brother's note.
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: You OK? Yeah.
• 20:43
  Speaker 11: Yeah, I haven't read that in ages.
• 20:50
  Speaker 9: Yeah. 17-year-old Jay was at his local sixth form college.
• 20:54
  Speaker 9: hoping to study history at university.
• 20:56
  Speaker 16: He was the kind of guy that would come over
• 20:58
  Speaker 16: and just be like, hey, Connor, take a picture of you. Thanks, mate.
• 21:02
  Speaker 16: Definitely wasn't ready for that one, but no worries. Jay
• 21:04
  Speaker 16: was friends with everyone. I'll just say that. He loved people.
• 21:08
  Speaker 16: A picture of us at our prom. There's actually a
• 21:11
  Speaker 16: video at that prom night. I still watch it to
• 21:14
  Speaker 16: this day because I have to for my own sanity.
• 21:19
  Speaker 16: Jay was the strongest bond that I've had with anyone.
• 21:22
  Speaker 16: I can definitely say that.
• 21:24
  Speaker 7: We had a really, really great relationship. We liked the
• 21:28
  Speaker 7: same films, we played PlayStation together. Jay was just a
• 21:32
  Speaker 7: gentleman from the get-go and sweet and intelligent and wildly
• 21:37
  Speaker 7: capable of everything.
• 21:42
  Speaker 9: On a spring evening in 2015, Jay arrived home distraught
• 21:46
  Speaker 9: following an incident with a girl he'd been seeing.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: He said they were.
• 21:54
  Speaker 7: Evolved in foreplay, he was laying next to her and
• 21:57
  Speaker 7: he'd got on top of her and she just froze.
• 22:01
  Speaker 7: He sat back and he kept asking her again and again,
• 22:04
  Speaker 7: what's the matter, what's wrong, have I done something wrong?
• 22:07
  Speaker 7: And she said that she wanted him to go home.
• 22:10
  Speaker 7: I was texting and calling her. She answered the phone
• 22:13
  Speaker 7: and I said hi and she said hi and I.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Had it on loudspeaker.
• 22:18
  Speaker 7: Her mother grabbed the phone off of her and said
• 22:22
  Speaker 7: they've put in a rape allegation I'm going to effing
• 22:26
  Speaker 7: get him done.
• 22:30
  Speaker 9: Jay called the police himself to try and find out
• 22:32
  Speaker 9: more information. He was told a complaint had already been
• 22:36
  Speaker 9: made against him and he agreed to go to the
• 22:38
  Speaker 9: station for voluntary questioning.
• 22:42
  Speaker 7: We met with our duty solicitor. Because of all the
• 22:45
  Speaker 7: inconsistencies through the statement they had originally made about my brother...
• 22:51
  Speaker 7: He just advised us to say no comment because there
• 22:53
  Speaker 7: was nothing there.
• 22:55
  Speaker 9: As Jay was still a minor, Camelia went with him
• 22:58
  Speaker 9: into the interview room.
• 23:00
  Speaker 7: When the police officer came in, she was all guns blazing.
• 23:04
  Speaker 7: She didn't hold back.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: Did you rape her?
• 23:07
  Speaker 7: Did you force her? Did you penetrate her? Because of
• 23:12
  Speaker 7: the way she was wording the things that she was saying,
• 23:14
  Speaker 7: it made Jay want to answer. And the more times
• 23:16
  Speaker 7: he said no comment when he wanted to answer these questions...
• 23:20
  Speaker 7: the more the tears were streaming. I could just feel
• 23:25
  Speaker 7: him shaking under my hand. It was probably one of
• 23:28
  Speaker 7: the worst experiences I've ever been through in my life.
• 23:31
  Speaker 7: He was treated like a criminal, and I thought, look
• 23:35
  Speaker 7: at him, he's a boy.
• 23:39
  Speaker 9: Following his interview, Jay was released under investigation.
• 23:44
  Speaker 16: We all knew he was going through the case. But
• 23:48
  Speaker 16: being that age, you don't know what to ask.
• 23:51
  Speaker 7: Jay, from that moment, was just a shell of a person.
• 23:55
  Speaker 7: And I don't think I've ever really seen a boy
• 24:00
  Speaker 7: bellow and cry and just be as distraught as he was.
• 24:05
  Speaker 7: It was like he'd had his soul ripped away.
• 24:08
  Speaker 16: I would have wanted him to open up to me,
• 24:12
  Speaker 16: but maybe he wanted to try and fight this on
• 24:15
  Speaker 16: his own, which I wouldn't want to fight on my own.
• 24:25
  Speaker 9: Weeks went by with no update from the police.
• 24:32
  Speaker 7: We still haven't heard anything from the police. It took
• 24:34
  Speaker 7: us to call them for them to tell us that
• 24:36
  Speaker 7: the girl had dropped the allegation and that there'll be
• 24:41
  Speaker 7: no further action. By this point, he'd spiralled completely. To
• 24:47
  Speaker 7: be branded with something like that, if you haven't done it,
• 24:52
  Speaker 7: it's a big thing. So we were all very, very distraught.
• 25:01
  Speaker 9: On the night before Jay's death, Camelia was working late
• 25:04
  Speaker 9: at a local pub.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: I'd come home.
• 25:08
  Speaker 7: Mum said that Jay'd gone out. I said that I
• 25:10
  Speaker 7: needed to go to bed.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: I was really, really tired. It had been, like, a
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: really long day.
• 25:16
  Speaker 7: The next thing I know, we get a knock on
• 25:18
  Speaker 7: the door and my mum screamed up to me upstairs
• 25:20
  Speaker 7: and she said, Jay's hung himself, Camelia, we need to
• 25:23
  Speaker 7: get our clothes on and we need to go to hospital.
• 25:26
  Speaker 9: Oh, it's really... Sorry.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Sorry.
• 25:31
  Speaker 7: The police officer had told us he'd bought his favourite
• 25:34
  Speaker 7: energy drink, his favourite bag of crisps and a length
• 25:39
  Speaker 7: of rope. He was found by a dog walker. They
• 25:46
  Speaker 7: called the police and they.
• 25:47
  Speaker 6: Cut him down.
• 25:49
  Speaker 7: It was a tree we used to play on when
• 25:50
  Speaker 7: we were kids. They managed to revive him and get
• 25:53
  Speaker 7: a heartbeat, but he'd sustained so much brain damage that
• 25:56
  Speaker 7: he wasn't there any more. He was 17 and he
• 26:02
  Speaker 7: died on the 5th of July, 2015.
• 26:23
  Speaker 9: After a year on bail, Liam received a call from
• 26:26
  Speaker 9: the police, who'd made a decision on his case.
• 26:33
  Speaker 8: I got told I'm really sorry, but the decisions come
• 26:36
  Speaker 8: back that actually they're going to charge you and you're
• 26:38
  Speaker 8: going to go to court.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: That was the most difficult day. I kept wanting to
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: be sick. I was just a state.
• 26:44
  Speaker 13: You can just see the horror in Liam. He knows
• 26:47
  Speaker 13: the severity of what could be happening to him.
• 26:49
  Speaker 8: We now have a deadline date to fight for this
• 26:52
  Speaker 8: by and we need to get things sorted.
• 26:57
  Speaker 9: Despite the absence of any other evidence, the Crown Prosecution
• 27:00
  Speaker 9: Service chose to prosecute Liam. It was the complainant's word
• 27:04
  Speaker 9: against his.
• 27:06
  Speaker 12: He wanted to know, well, what's the worst-case scenario? And
• 27:09
  Speaker 12: the worst-case scenario is double figures in terms of imprisonment.
• 27:13
  Speaker 12: He would be on the sex offender's register for life.
• 27:17
  Speaker 12: And effectively, as a young man in his early 20s, his.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Life would be over.
• 27:25
  Speaker 9: It would be almost another year before Liam would appear
• 27:28
  Speaker 9: in court.
• 27:33
  Speaker 8: I had planned for the worst possibility. If I went
• 27:36
  Speaker 8: into prison, I was never planning on coming back out.
• 27:40
  Speaker 8: I would have had to have committed suicide.
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: I think Liam more put on to me that he
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: wanted me to look after Lorraine. He was more worried
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: about his mum than himself.
• 27:55
  Speaker 9: After nearly two years on bail, Liam's trial finally began.
• 27:58
  Speaker 9: He faced 12 counts of rape and sexual assault.
• 28:05
  Speaker 10: On the day of the trial, we have this really
• 28:07
  Speaker 10: big hug and I can feel him shaking and he
• 28:10
  Speaker 10: looked really smart in his suit, obviously.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: And off he goes.
• 28:15
  Speaker 10: And then as soon as the car's out of sight,
• 28:16
  Speaker 10: you're waving, waving, waving and you just break down. I
• 28:21
  Speaker 10: was absolutely crushed because I was terrified that when he
• 28:26
  Speaker 10: gets there, they may not let him out again and
• 28:28
  Speaker 10: I never get to see him again. And he doesn't
• 28:30
  Speaker 10: know that I love him and I miss him. And
• 28:33
  Speaker 10: I was so sorry there was nothing I could do
• 28:35
  Speaker 10: to change it or stop it.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: I'm going again.
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: I think it was just probably the most difficult thing
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: I've ever had to do. Because I just thought, if
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: everything goes bad, I'm never going to see him again.
• 28:58
  Speaker 9: For the prosecuting barrister, Liam's case began just like any other.
• 29:03
  Speaker 15: I was given a brief to prosecute Liam Allen over
• 29:06
  Speaker 15: the weekend before the Monday's trial. There's nothing unusual about that.
• 29:11
  Speaker 15: It was my duty to put the allegations to him
• 29:14
  Speaker 15: and try and secure a conviction. You're there to put
• 29:18
  Speaker 15: the evidence before the jury.
• 29:21
  Speaker 9: I had no feelings one way or the other.
• 29:24
  Speaker 13: Just before he's about to walk into the court, he
• 29:26
  Speaker 13: goes off into a room.
• 29:27
  Speaker 6: To talk to his solicitor.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: They wanted to change it from 12 counts to 13.
• 29:31
  Speaker 6: And you could see it, like he's physically shaking.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: It was excruciating.
• 29:35
  Speaker 12: He was very, very upset.
• 29:38
  Speaker 16: I was concerned.
• 29:40
  Speaker 12: That he wouldn't be able to hold it together.
• 29:43
  Speaker 9: The trial began with the prosecution presenting the case against Liam.
• 29:46
  Speaker 8: I remember walking into court and the prosecution started reading
• 29:52
  Speaker 8: out the charges and it was going on.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: And on and on.
• 29:56
  Speaker 13: As each accusation goes, we all felt like We'd just
• 30:00
  Speaker 13: been hit in the chest repeatedly, one after the other.
• 30:03
  Speaker 12: The allegations related, for example, to the first time they'd
• 30:07
  Speaker 12: ever had sex, related to an allegation of being tied
• 30:12
  Speaker 12: up so that sexual intercourse could take place.
• 30:15
  Speaker 6: And then there was one which stood out.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: What she alleges is that you're going through a park,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: you go for a walk, and then when you've come
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: to a secluded area, you've pushed over against a tree.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: pulled down her trousers and then vaginally raped her against
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: a tree. Did that happen at all?
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: No.
• 30:34
  Speaker 8: I remember seeing three members of the jury glare at
• 30:38
  Speaker 8: me as if I was just this monster.
• 30:46
  Speaker 9: Then, for the first time in more than two years,
• 30:49
  Speaker 9: Liam heard the voice of his ex-girlfriend. She gave her
• 30:52
  Speaker 9: evidence from behind a screen.
• 30:56
  Speaker 12: When she gave evidence in court, she was composed. She
• 31:01
  Speaker 12: came across as being quite credible.
• 31:05
  Speaker 8: When she started speaking, that was kind of the part
• 31:08
  Speaker 8: where I couldn't cope. I physically shook, couldn't stop crying
• 31:15
  Speaker 8: and literally bit my hand to stop myself from shouting
• 31:20
  Speaker 8: because somebody was sitting in front of 12 other people.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: Spouting the most horrific lies.
• 31:28
  Speaker 12: The picture being painted of Liam Allen was a manipulative,
• 31:33
  Speaker 12: coercive individual who had forced her into a position whereby
• 31:38
  Speaker 12: all of these allegations were possible to have happened. It
• 31:42
  Speaker 12: certainly didn't at all tally with the manner in which
• 31:47
  Speaker 12: he presented himself to me. But, of course, one can
• 31:52
  Speaker 12: never know definitively.
• 31:55
  Speaker 9: As the first day of evidence was ending, Liam's defence
• 31:58
  Speaker 9: barrister spotted that crucial evidence was missing from the prosecution's case.
• 32:04
  Speaker 12: We made requests for disclosure concerning any material in the
• 32:09
  Speaker 12: hands of the prosecution, concerning communications between the two of them,
• 32:12
  Speaker 12: be they text messages or social media material. We were
• 32:16
  Speaker 12: told there was nothing.
• 32:18
  Speaker 15: But of course the CPS... prosecution service hadn't been given
• 32:22
  Speaker 15: anything by the police it was only because defense counsel
• 32:26
  Speaker 15: said to me on several occasions look go and speak
• 32:29
  Speaker 15: to the officer and just see just see if he's
• 32:32
  Speaker 15: got anything and good heavens he.
• 32:34
  Speaker 12: Did in fact the complainant had given her mobile telephone
• 32:39
  Speaker 12: to the police the download as we later found out
• 32:42
  Speaker 12: included messages that she herself had deleted In order to
• 32:46
  Speaker 12: keep the trial going, the only way for me to
• 32:49
  Speaker 12: have an opportunity to look at this material was to
• 32:52
  Speaker 12: have the disc with me overnight.
• 32:54
  Speaker 10: End of the day, Liam came home and just ran
• 33:02
  Speaker 10: into the bedroom absolutely howling and crying.
• 33:07
  Speaker 8: I cried myself to sleep that night because I've never
• 33:12
  Speaker 8: felt so betrayed in my life. And it was heartbreaking
• 33:15
  Speaker 8: to know that that was my long-term relationship.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: I go back home.
• 33:23
  Speaker 12: It's by now almost 10 o'clock at night. And I
• 33:26
  Speaker 12: start trawling through this material. There were 57,000 text messages
• 33:31
  Speaker 12: upon that disc. There were some messages that related directly
• 33:36
  Speaker 12: to the allegations on the indictment. The message, it wasn't
• 33:40
  Speaker 12: against my will or anything, related back to... the first
• 33:44
  Speaker 12: time that sexual intercourse had taken place. And it was
• 33:47
  Speaker 12: possible to see that the sorts of discussions going on
• 33:50
  Speaker 12: between the complainant and Liam, or the complainant and her friends,
• 33:54
  Speaker 12: were such that they wholly undermined the complainant's account. I
• 33:58
  Speaker 12: called it a night at about 4am. I had to
• 34:00
  Speaker 12: get up at about 7am and get back to Croydon
• 34:02
  Speaker 12: Crown Court. And I took Liam to one side and
• 34:08
  Speaker 12: he just put his head in his hands and started
• 34:11
  Speaker 12: to weep.
• 34:13
  Speaker 10: A judge has called for an inquiry after a university
• 34:16
  Speaker 10: student was cleared of rape.
• 34:18
  Speaker 16: The case against Mr.
• 34:19
  Speaker 10: Allen was dropped when evidence on a computer disc containing 40,000
• 34:23
  Speaker 10: text and WhatsApp messages revealed the alleged victim pestered him
• 34:27
  Speaker 10: for casual sex.
• 34:28
  Speaker 17: She said she didn't like sex with him. Text messages
• 34:31
  Speaker 17: to say she loved sex with him. There were rape fantasies.
• 34:36
  Speaker 17: There was sex in the open air. This was a
• 34:38
  Speaker 17: 12-count indictment. If the defense hadn't got that, that man
• 34:42
  Speaker 17: would have been convicted. That man would have got 12 years.
• 34:45
  Speaker 17: That man would have had his life.
• 34:47
  Speaker 15: Trashed and on a sexual offenses register forever.
• 34:55
  Speaker 12: It shouldn't have been me looking at this at the
• 34:58
  Speaker 12: 11th hour. These messages should have been considered almost two
• 35:03
  Speaker 12: years earlier. So either the police officer hadn't done his
• 35:06
  Speaker 12: job properly or had seen these messages, then clearly something
• 35:09
  Speaker 12: very extraordinary had taken place in that they'd been buried.
• 35:14
  Speaker 12: There has been an explosion of sexual offences being reported.
• 35:19
  Speaker 12: At the same time, the resources available to the police,
• 35:22
  Speaker 12: the Crown Prosecution Service and the entire criminal justice system
• 35:25
  Speaker 12: have been slashed in real terms. So the whole system
• 35:28
  Speaker 12: is on its knees.
• 35:30
  Speaker 9: Following the collapse of the case, the judge had it
• 35:33
  Speaker 9: officially recorded that Liam was not guilty.
• 35:38
  Speaker 15: He said to Liam Allen, you leave this court without
• 35:43
  Speaker 15: a stain on your character.
• 35:51
  Speaker 14: First story, you heard this on the news, the victims
• 35:53
  Speaker 14: of crimes such as rape are being told to hand
• 35:55
  Speaker 14: their phones to the police or risk prosecutions not going ahead.
• 35:59
  Speaker 14: The university student Liam Allen, you might remember him, he
• 36:02
  Speaker 14: had rape charges against him dropped when crucial text messages
• 36:06
  Speaker 14: were disclosed while he was on trial.
• 36:10
  Speaker 9: In the months following his trial, the Metropolitan Police apologised
• 36:13
  Speaker 9: to Liam and all active rape cases in England and
• 36:16
  Speaker 9: Wales were urgently reviewed.
• 36:20
  Speaker 8: I had hoped that once things had stopped in court
• 36:24
  Speaker 8: and I'd been exonerated, life would be able to go
• 36:29
  Speaker 8: back to normal, which I realised was quite naive of me.
• 36:33
  Speaker 9: In most cases... False allegations are only officially recorded if
• 36:37
  Speaker 9: the complainant admits that their allegation was untrue.
• 36:41
  Speaker 12: The complainant in this case was not prosecuted. That is
• 36:46
  Speaker 12: far from unusual. The difficulty in relation to prosecuting somebody
• 36:50
  Speaker 12: is that there has to be a thorough investigation. There
• 36:54
  Speaker 12: also isn't any political mileage because of the perceived effect
• 36:58
  Speaker 12: that would have on genuine complainants coming forward. But there
• 37:06
  Speaker 12: will be those who make up these allegations. There will
• 37:10
  Speaker 12: be those who serve prison sentences when they're not guilty.
• 37:15
  Speaker 12: And equally, there will be those who come to court
• 37:19
  Speaker 12: who are genuine victims of rape, whose cases result nevertheless
• 37:24
  Speaker 12: in acquittals.
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: Why did she do this to you?
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: I'll never know.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: I'd love to ask why.
• 37:28
  Speaker 8: I mean, I'd never believe what the answer was, naturally,
• 37:32
  Speaker 8: but I'd love the opportunity to find out why.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: Nobody will ever know. I will never know.
• 37:49
  Speaker 9: It's three months since Ashley was arrested and the police
• 37:52
  Speaker 9: finally have an update on his case. The complainant has
• 37:56
  Speaker 9: withdrawn the allegation. There will be no further action.
• 38:04
  Speaker 5: So the email I had off the police was, hi Ashley,
• 38:06
  Speaker 5: I have good news for you. The statement has been withdrawn,
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: so the investigation is being closed and your bail is cancelled.
• 38:13
  Speaker 5: Please let your solicitor know.
• 38:16
  Speaker 18: That was it?
• 38:17
  Speaker 5: That was it. I don't respect their decency for them
• 38:19
  Speaker 5: to turn up at my front door. You know, what
• 38:21
  Speaker 5: are they scared of? You know, it's just ridiculous the
• 38:27
  Speaker 5: way they handle things. Things need to change. Through the
• 38:34
  Speaker 5: entire investigation, I didn't have no contact at all. I
• 38:38
  Speaker 5: had no updates unless I was ringing them. They don't
• 38:42
  Speaker 5: care what people go through. They should really treat people fairly.
• 38:46
  Speaker 5: If they told me to do something to an individual
• 38:48
  Speaker 5: that I wasn't happy doing, I think I'd quit my
• 38:51
  Speaker 5: job there and then.
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: Will you ever get over this?
• 39:04
  Speaker 5: I'm still mentally scarred about what's happened and physically scarred.
• 39:10
  Speaker 5: But I don't think about it and I try and
• 39:13
  Speaker 5: debate about it. I'm doing a goddamn good job of
• 39:16
  Speaker 5: it too.
• 39:20
  Speaker 9: Like Liam, Ashley is not pursuing the complainant through the courts.
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: I'm there after revenge. It's over with now. Muscle point
• 39:28
  Speaker 5: and steering stuff back up. Get on with it now.
• 39:32
  Speaker 5: Hopefully I can have my job back. There's nothing stopping
• 39:35
  Speaker 5: me now. I'm going to save up a bit of money.
• 39:38
  Speaker 5: I'm just going to pick up and go. I don't
• 39:41
  Speaker 5: want to be around here no more. Too many memories.
• 39:58
  Speaker 7: If I believe he had done it, it doesn't matter
• 40:01
  Speaker 7: whether he's my brother or not, I don't think I
• 40:03
  Speaker 7: would have supported him through it. With something like a
• 40:07
  Speaker 7: rape allegation, they're heavy, heavy, heavy words, words that you
• 40:12
  Speaker 7: can't take back. For Jay, being called something he's not,
• 40:17
  Speaker 7: I think he really struggled with. Five days after Jay
• 40:23
  Speaker 7: passed away, my mum had a mental breakdown. My mum,
• 40:28
  Speaker 7: just a week and a bit over my brother's one-year anniversary,
• 40:33
  Speaker 7: she hung herself as well. I've lost the two most
• 40:39
  Speaker 7: important people to me in my life. It all links
• 40:42
  Speaker 7: back to the same thing, the allegation. If those words
• 40:47
  Speaker 7: were never said.
• 40:49
  Speaker 7: We wouldn't be here today and they would still both
• 40:51
  Speaker 7: be alive. I think about them every single day. It's
• 40:58
  Speaker 7: horribly lonely. I would give everything I have to speak
• 41:02
  Speaker 7: to them for five more minutes.
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: Both of them.
• 41:08
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I'd give everything I have to speak to them again.
• 41:17
  Speaker 9: It's four years since the day of Liam's arrest.
• 41:23
  Speaker 10: Behind the scenes, I can see this broken boy who's
• 41:28
  Speaker 10: trying to do everything in his power, but he's just
• 41:30
  Speaker 10: not the same carefree young man I would have expected
• 41:33
  Speaker 10: him to be at 22.
• 41:34
  Speaker 8: It's really easy to get consumed, and this accusation just
• 41:39
  Speaker 8: threw everything like a tsunami over me.
• 41:41
  Speaker 13: Our whole group, we had almost this grey cloud of just...
• 41:44
  Speaker 13: In every conversation, we seemed to find a way of
• 41:47
  Speaker 13: talking about what was going on, the accusation and everything.
• 41:51
  Speaker 8: The case puts you in a cage without even being
• 41:53
  Speaker 8: in prison.
• 41:53
  Speaker 13: You are essentially still.
• 41:55
  Speaker 11: You have bars around you either way.
• 41:57
  Speaker 13: You were walking around in high streets, constantly looking over
• 42:00
  Speaker 13: your shoulder because you couldn't bump into this person.
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: Or that person.
• 42:03
  Speaker 8: As soon as Art was accused, for me, without even
• 42:06
  Speaker 8: realising it, I think I've put my own life.
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: On pause anyways.
• 42:22
  Speaker 8: It's like something that just buries you all the time.
• 42:25
  Speaker 8: There's always something that's just pushing you down. Sometimes you
• 42:31
  Speaker 8: look back and you think of what you could have had.
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: Where I'm at with it is that I don't know
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: what I'll do.
• 42:37
  Speaker 18: I don't know if I'll be able to get a
• 42:38
  Speaker 18: job because every employer that I speak to, every person
• 42:42
  Speaker 18: that I speak to, this has to come into conversation
• 42:46
  Speaker 18: and they need to know whether or not that's too
• 42:48
  Speaker 18: much for them to talk about or deal with.
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: This will always be with me.
• 42:55
  Speaker 8: I'll always be known as the guy that was falsely
• 42:58
  Speaker 8: accused and there will come a time where people forget
• 43:00
  Speaker 8: that it was a false accusation. Nobody, nobody will remember
• 43:05
  Speaker 8: the specifics of the case.
• 43:06
  Speaker 11: Apart from me.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: Thank you for watching.