Wrongly Accused Person

Website

After you've read the-about page-, you'll begin to understand what has inspired me to start this site. I believe it will become more than simply another page on the World Wide Web though, only time will tell what benefits it could bring to others and just how far those benefits will extend.

Following my own experiences, I discovered that there really are no sites on the internet focussing on the assistance that wrongly accused people and their families require. This need begins at the moment of arrest, through any possible period of remand and continues after the eventual court ordeal. Although in its infancy, the site has attracted considerable attention already and I would like to thank everyone for their very supportive comments. Messages from those who agreed to have them displayed on the site, either anonymously or by name, can be found in the forum's 'What people who have contacted the site say.'

My aim here is to provide as much information as possible and advice drawn from my whole support network in the hope that it can ease the burden of at least a few of the huge number of people affected by this type of injustice.

While most people will consider the wrongly accused person to be the victim in miscarriage of justice cases, there are in fact four groups of victims.

1. The accused person goes without saying and regardless of what the charge will need considerable time to recover from the trauma if ever. She/he will undoubtedly struggle to overcome the stigma of simply being charged of an offence, the more serious the offence, harder to clear a name in the public eye. Certainly charges being dropped or even an acquittal in court won’t be the end of the nightmare for this particular victim.

2. the person or persons originally thought to be the victim(s) of the accused are now victims of misjustice. They have had to come to terms with being sure of his/her guilt, learned to direct their anger at them and will have thought of a conviction as a starting point of the rest of their lives. Not only has the justice system failed the accused, it has failed them too and prolonged their own anguish which now must be revisited again when coming to terms of the truth if they ever find out what it is.

3. Thirdly the friends and family of the original victim (who is now a victim of 2 circumstances) have endured their own ordeals. They have had to battle to accept what they have been led to believe and will again have to learn to accept the truth before the accused person stands any chance of reconciliation with all or any of them should he desire to do so. Often their assumption of his guilt will have destroyed any relations they had before the legal process began beyond repair.

4. Lastly and by no means least are the family and friends of the accused person. They are fraught with concern, sure of innocence but feel powerless to help and simply can’t know how best to do so since there is no one who is there to tell them. In many cases social workers will offer but they have a foot on both sides of the fence and often relations will turn sour and their assistance will therefore be short-lived. I know in my case they felt as hurt, frustrated and helpless as I did despite the overwhelming amount of public support we all received. At the end of the day, the accused’s future depends on his choice of legal representatives which in the majority of cases will be people he/she doesn’t know. Can you imagine putting your life literally in someone’s hands not knowing who they are or how skilled they are in their positions?

I hope in discovering this site you will find information and advice which is useful to you. In the long term as I continually update and develop it I am confident that while false allegations and charges will continue to occur, a wrongly accused person and their family will now have somewhere to turn to reduce the heartache and torment caused. My satisfaction will come from the knowledge that I will have aided others who find themselves in a position outlined above.

Billy Middleton