Mr ER

Mr ER appeared before the Youth Court in March 2011 charged with four counts of sexual activity with a child under the age of 16. He was sentenced to an 18 month Youth Rehabilitation Order with supervision. At the time of the offences, Mr ER was 16 and the victim 13.

Mr ER began an appeal in 2011 but abandoned the process. He applied to the CCRC for a review of his conviction in March 2012.

During review, the CCRC obtained new evidence of an earlier account given by the complainant which was inconsistent with that which she gave in interview and during trial.

In the view of the CCRC, this new evidence potentially undermined the credibility of the complainant and cast doubt on the reliability of her evidence before the Youth Court.

The CCRC concluded that in the absence of any corroborating evidence and taking account Mr ER’s consistent account throughout and previous good character, there was a real possibility that the Crown Court would reach a different conclusion and not uphold Mr ER’s conviction.

The CCRC referred the conviction in January 2015.

The Crown Court quashed the conviction in March 2015.