The Independent (UK)
November 23.
2001
Many child abuse convictions could be unsafe, says Woolf
by Robert Verkaik
'People's judge' sets out vision for a better way ahead forward
Dozens of men convicted of sexually assaulting children years after the
alleged offences may be victims of miscarriages of justice, the country's
most senior judge has warned.
Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice, said child abuse allegations "were
easy to make" and might be motivated by claims for compensation.
His comments will be seized upon by supporters of Jonathan King, who believe
the former pop mogul is innocent of charges of sexually assaulting boys. King
was sentenced to seven years in prison on Wednesday at the Old Bailey.
Lord Woolf said serious concerns had already been raised by the Criminal
Cases Review Commission over a number of paedophile convictions. In an
interview with The Independent, Lord Woolf said the allegations involved
"very old offences" from former residents of children's homes. He
said many of the recollections, "may not be accurate", especially
when they were "tempted" by awards from the Criminal Injuries
Compensation Board and the police were asking, "Did anything happen to
you?"
Plans to relax the rules of evidence so that juries could be made aware of
previous convictions could add to the risk of miscarriages of justice in
child abuse cases, he warned.
Lord Woolf urged judges to use their discretion to make sure juries did not
hear overtly prejudicial evidence. "With paedophiles it can be very
difficult --- the natural reaction is one that we have got to protect the
children and juries will be affected by this. It may be that in some respects
in relation to some sexual offences the balance has gone the wrong way
already," he added.
He said allegations were easy to make as abuses are committed in private and
in many cases involved one person's word against another's. "You don't
commit the offences in front of half a dozen people it's not like robbing a
bank."
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