Man Not Guilty of Historic Child Sex Offences Luton Crown Court 2024

 Client was charged with four counts of indecency with a child, contrary to section 1(1) of the Indecency with Children Act 1960, and four counts of indecent assault, contrary to section 14(1) of the Sexual Offences Act 1956. Though these offences were abolished 20 years ago, the CPS were still able to prosecute our Client under the old law as the allegations dated back to the 1990s when these pieces of legislation were still in force. It was alleged that our Client had engaged in sexual activity with the Complainant on a number of occasions over a two-year period whilst the Complainant was working for our Client and his wife as a babysitter. The incidents allegedly occurred when the Complainant was between 11 and 14 years old.

Our client's instructions were that he did not remember ever having met the Complainant, and most certainly had never engaged in any form of sexual activity with her. He was first interviewed by police in 2021, thirty years after the alleged offending, but was not charged until 2023. He suddenly faced extremely serious criminal accusations and a prison sentence of up to 10 years’. Our client denied the allegations in their entirety.

Given that our Client instructed that the alleged incidents had simply never occurred, we spent the 18 months awaiting trial meticulously assessing the Crown’s case and requesting disclosure of relevant material which we then subjected to fierce scrutiny. Our approach also included gathering of character references from our client’s friends, family, and colleagues to demonstrate how the allegations were inconsistent with his beliefs, values, and character.

Lisa Nicol instructed senior counsel at trial. The Crown put forward their case, and the Complainant attended Court where she was expertly cross-examined by the Defence. Our client then gave evidence in his own defence, and a character witness was called to give evidence in-person too. After a short period of deliberation by the jury, the parties were called back into Court where a verdict of ‘not guilty’ was returned to all eight counts on the indictment. Our client was thus acquitted on all counts.