Mr CE

Mr CE was convicted in March 2000 of unlawful sexual intercourse and indecent assault.

Mr CE received a sentence of 12 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years with ten-year sex offender notification and disqualification provisions.

The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in July 2003.

The CCRC considered that the case presented a number of features which gave cause for concern, including:

• The case against Mr CE was based on uncorroborated allegations of sexual abuse made many years after the event.
• The complainant claimed the offences were committed during a period of time when she was subject to regular social services supervision.
• The loss of contemporaneous documentation relating to the complainant’s social services files.
• Inconsistencies and ambiguities which arose in relation to the complainant’s accounts, and those of other witnesses.
• The lack of any substantive action taken by social services in either 1984 or 1985 when they first became aware of allegations by the complainant.
• The complainant’s claim to have kept a diary which contemporaneously recorded her abuse but which had been lost, contrasting with the diary she produced to police which, other than a retrospective entry made in 1985, made no reference to abuse, despite covering a period of time when it was claimed abuse was continuing.

The CCRC concluded that the particular circumstances which arose in this case created a situation whereby Mr CE’s ability to mount an affective defence was severely fettered and that Mr CE may therefore have been precluded from receiving a fair trial.

The CCRC referred the conviction in June 2007.

The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction in October 2008.