Abusing The Innocent

Elizabeth Yeld

August 29, 2025.

There is a massive problem with Justice in the UK; the presumption of innocence has entirely gone.

An accused is instantly guilty because a self certifying victim says so. There is no scrutiny whatsoever of the accuser as they are instantly rendered "victim" and must not be " re- traumatised".

The routine is always that the accused has his house searched whilst in a cell and the "victim" sits in a comfortable chair, given cups of tea, and praised for being so brave as to come forward.

It does not matter if they are mentally ill or drug damaged as this is just taken to prove the abuse being claimed, often as many as fifty years ago. No medical records are checked, no criminal records revealed.

The accused goes for interview and is treated like a rapist/abuser from the very start, however much he denies the allegations. No psychologist, psychiatrist or memory researcher is asked to advise, and many come home devastated, because there is no sense given by police that anything they are saying is being taken as the truth.

Nor do police follow up anything which the defendant asks them to. The defendant is not the victim, and apparently from the very start, there is no possibility that he could be. Any family telling police or Social Services that this could not be true are judged to be pariahs, and wives, mothers and sisters are all labelled "deluded and in denial" if they ever try to suggest that the defendant is not guilty.

Those contacted who voice their belief in the defendant are not contacted again. They are treated as if they know nothing, even if they are the very people who would best know the truth.

What are obviously key statements to knowing the truth are not taken. As one example (there are many) the parents of a ten year old claiming shocking, outlandish things happened historically, were never contacted for statements.

This is only some of what I could say, and in all support organisations for falsely accused/wrongly convicted we hear the same. All exculpatory evidence is side lined or wholly avoided and there are no checks made on the accuser.

Accusers may refer to wrong things they have done in the past in their statements which obviously would be helpful for the defendant to know about, just as medical records should always be relevant when they express the difficulties of any mental illness.

It does not appear that police have any understanding that mental illness can cause delusions, and on top of that when accusers say they have lost their phones, police are totally accepting of this. Accusers will often delete their social media accounts and again, this is not a matter of concern for police.

At injustice conferences we hear the same aspects being brought up again and again. The date of the abuse and the the place of the abuse change too often from statement to statement and it doesn't appear to matter - this obviously makes a case far harder to defend if the details of what is being contested keep changing.

From my own perspective, there is no attempt whatever to protect the innocent and the accused. On the contrary, if the story is sufficiently horrible it will go all the way, with no attempt whatsoever to investigate aspects which might show it to be untrue.

It would be bad enough if this were one case, but at injustice conferences, we literally hear hundreds saying the same.

© Ann Cunningham 2025

Image: Michael Coghlan

What’s your view?

Scroll down and leave a Comment using the comments form below

and have your say.

User names are fine.

Or

Use the Get in Touch form at the very bottom of the Home Page

and write a letter for our Reader’s Remarks Page.

You will need to include your name, address and contact details.

Only your name, city/town and county/country will be published

and we can withhold these if you ask.