Met Police apologise for withholding messages in rape case

Met Police apologise for withholding messages in rape case

A student who narrowly avoided being wrongly convicted of rape has claimed text messages were 'plucked' out of the evidence to paint him in a bad light.

Liam Allan, 22, spent two years on bail after being accused of rape and sexual assault while police sat on key text messages which his accuser had sent.

The Greenwich University student was eventually acquitted of the charges in December after a prosecutor discovered the full file of messages, which revealed the woman had fantasised about rough and violent intercourse.

The Met Police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has now apologised after a review blamed blunders in the case on 'a combination of error, lack of challenge, and lack of knowledge'.

Speaking after the review's findings were announced today, Mr Allen said messages his accuser sent which made him look guilty were 'plucked specifically to go against me', while those which undermined the case 'weren't looked at or deemed relevant'.

The Met's Commander Richard Smith and Chief prosecutor Claire Lindley met Mr Allan yesterday to apologise in person. He is mounting a claim for damages against the authorities.

Mr Allen told Sky News he appreciated the face-to-face apology, but was still worried about how his case had been handled.

He said: 'What concerns me is that there were certain messages that had been plucked to go against me.

'They were midway through it so it must mean that, at some point, there was reading somewhere, and even messages from around that section were undermining [the case].' 

The messages sent by the woman included one to a friend saying: 'It wasn't against my will or anything.' 

Another read: 'Sometimes sex is the number 1 priority, I'm really not joking to be honest.' 

She later wrote: 'You know it's always nice to be sexually assaulted without breaking the law.' 

The Met Police and CPS today announced a number of recommendations designed to stop similar potential miscarriages of justice

He said: 'I had always made clear that there was a download but had told CPS and original prosecution counsel (named) that I had looked through it and identified everything that was relevant.

'I can only read from this that because of the volume of analysis of phone downloads I deal with, I had wrongly assured myself that I had looked through this entire download.'

The officer has not been disciplined but is not currently working on sexual assault investigations, Commander Smith said.

He added: 'That is not to say we don't have faith in him as an investigator. He made an error, and we should have systems in place to address human error when it occurs.' 

Mr Allan said : 'I hope somewhere down the line there are consequences and lessons are learnt. I don't want one person being a scapegoat. There are other cases that have been dropped.'

The review stated: 'There is no evidence that the phone download was withheld deliberately by the OIC (officer in the case) or CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) prosecutors.

'The disclosure problems in this case were caused by a combination of error, lack of challenge, and lack of knowledge.' 

Commander Smith said: 'Mr Allan received a personal apology from us both and I was really pleased to have that opportunity to meet with him face-to-face, allow him to read the report and apologise for the errors that were made.'

Scotland Yard revealed it is now reviewing 600 cases of rape and sexual assault which are awaiting trial, with thousands more under review nationally, the CPS said.

Mr Smith said: 'We have moved in 120 officers to assist with the review of the 600 cases we have which are post-charge at the moment.'

Ms Lindley said: 'The 600 cases live in the system presently are still being reviewed. That process has not yet finished.'

'During the review some cases have given cause for concern. Some cases are discontinued in the normal course of events.'

The review recommended that:

Police and CPS develop a 'Disclosure Improvement Plan' to work out how evidence can be best analysed.

A national protocol for the examination of digital media.

Provide more training to all police officers on the issue.

Train a team of accredited 'police specialist disclosure experts' for eac