Recorded crime allegations of sexual offences have trebled over the past twenty years. Although this increase reflects a greater awareness of the prevalence and seriousness of sexual crime, there is also widespread concern about the growth of false allegations and the quality of justice for the wrongly accused.

Rightly, the criminal justice system has become more responsive to complaints of sexual assault. Police forces have dedicated teams of police and social workers receptive to complaints that may date back decades.

There is also a range of statutory special measures for children and vulnerable witnesses giving evidence.

These developments have greatly eased the burden of reporting sexual crimes and giving evidence.

However, while these improvements are to be welcomed, there has been a simultaneous increase in false allegations and a failure of the criminal justice system to effectively sift true from false allegations at an early stage.

	The result is that although sexual offences comprise a minute percentage of all recorded crime, they now constitute one of the largest categories of contested cases on indictment - that is cases tried by jury at Crown Court.

Because the increase in trials has depended largely on uncorroborated oral testimony, the risk of a miscarriage of justice is greater than in any other area of the law.

Because of the way that rape convictions are presented in the media as being disproportionate to claims, this tendency is widely ignored and misunderstood, particularly the fact that the greatest - and most prevalent - risk of wrongful accusation and conviction is in historic cases.

Many of the men (and some women) at risk are people with no criminal record of any kind. They include people of exemplary character, with a long record of public service commitment to disadvantaged and delinquent children and adolescents.

In other situations responsible parents, step-parents, relatives and family friends may find themselves accused by disturbed teenagers or adult children in the family.

Sometimes accusers have a history of mental disturbance or have been influenced in making allegations through counselling, therapy and friends.

The line between truth and lies, fact and fantasy may all too easily be obscured in the accuser's mind once a false allegation takes hold and is encouraged.

There are numerous reasons for making false allegations. Some accusers may be caught up in a web of deceit they feel unable to renege on while others may hold a genuine but mistaken belief in the truth of the claims.

However there is currently a strong incentive to make or persist in false claims through criminal injury compensation entitlement and claims against public and private care homes for disturbed and delinquent children and adolescents.   More recently there has been an increase in contested allegations within adult relationships. These may be acquaintance or date rape charges, or allegations of rape within a marriage or partnership.

Frequently these concern differing interpretations of established events and may, if false, arise from a grudge, revenge or regret.

There are cases, however, where psychological factors play a role in the creation of phantom events, similar to some of those involving children and historic allegations.

Paradoxically, false allegations may, at first glance, seem more convincing than true ones. This misleading impression is a particular worry in the criminal justice system because it may affect the decision to prosecute and the tendency of a jury to convict.

This in turn reinforces the likelihood of future prosecutions resting on unreliable evidence.

Reality or Illusion?

One reason for this distortion is because false allegations are frequently graphically depicted historic descriptions of an alleged secret course of conduct of serious sexual offences committed over many years or against multiple victims.   Genuine cases on the other hand are more likely either to be contemporaneously reported, especially if serious and involving physical harm, or single or restricted instances of lesser offences.

False allegations may be encased in a convincing narrative apparently 'relived' by the complainant in court, whereas a genuine complaint, though possessing greater cogency overall, may appear matter of fact and pedestrian.

However, research and experience shows that emotion and vivid detail is no guide to veracity - as is demonstrated by research among people claiming to have been abducted and abused by aliens and other cases which are demonstrably false.

The upshot of this confusion is that there may be a significant number of genuine cases not prosecuted, while at the same time there is no guarantee that cases going to trial and indeed, resulting in a conviction, are likely to be based on the most reliable evidence.

Multiple allegations and similar fact

Where two or more people make allegations, common sense would suggest they are more likely to be true.

But while that may be the case if the allegations are truly independent of one another, in many historic contested sexual offence cases the multiplicity may be a product of the way the allegations were made rather than the truth of the allegations.

There may be many intertwined factors leading to false multiple allegations, and though difficult to unravel, there are usually tell-tale signs in the evidence, background to the case or investigation which mark them out from reliable claims.   Unfortunately, the evidential safeguards for similar allegations at trial have been weakened by the courts in England and Wales so that similarities that may be an artefact of direct or indirect influence between complainants or third parties may be considered as mutually supporting evidence.   The adverse effect of this development is more apparent, but not confined to, retrospective care homes cases which can involve a large and complex series of allegations.

Therapeutic influence and memory

Therapeutic and popular culture has promoted the idea that many life problems have a source in sexual abuse in childhood, whether or not there is any conscious recall of sexual transgressions.

This idea may lead to a belief in a hidden personal history of sexual victimisation by a father, stepfather or adult in authority. Suspicions may arise about someone held in affection and be completely opposite to what happened in real life.

A delusional false belief may develop into a make believe narrative, particularly when unwittingly encouraged by counsellors or therapists.   This form of progressive apparent recall may be explained as 'recovered memory' of 'repressed' or 'dissociated' events too painful to entrust to continuous consciousness.   Sometimes hypnotic and quasi-hypnotic techniques are employed by therapists to enhance alleged traumatic recall. But although these may exert a therapeutic cathartic effect on the client, there is no evidence to show that previously unknown traumatic events can be recalled in this way.

On the contrary, memories of traumatic and unpleasant events are firmly imprinted in memory and diverting attention to imagined assaults may be a way of avoiding other problems current in the complainant's life.

During the past twenty five years there has been a massive growth in pseudo- science promoting recovered memory and associated beliefs. This is the case even among some reputable mental health professionals.

Serious scientific research has repeatedly discredited these claims.

However, there are still widespread misapprehensions reflected in the theory and practice of some mental health and criminal justice practitioners.

Identifying unfair and improper means of obtaining evidence is a major concern in contested cases. It may require expert evidence on the reliability of testimony and undue influence.

Human rights and enhanced criminal record checks

False sexual offence allegations are life-changing events which ripple beyond the criminal justice system.

Family relationships and friendships may be affected. The accused may be asked to leave home by social services if there are children in the family. Families may be divided by allegations. Careers are put on hold or are at risk.

Even when charges are dropped or there is an acquittal, there may be far-reaching repercussions.   There may be requirements for risk assessments in connection with family and work. Adverse effects on employment and training may include the demand for an enhanced criminal record certificate whereby unproven allegations may be included on an official document necessary for working with children or vulnerable adults.

With the police having a wide discretion on the inclusion of relevant information, the human rights of falsely accused people may be at risk and their careers blighted through no fault of their own and without effective redress. This is an important developing area of public law where we have a specialist interest and expertise.