Operation Winthorpe: Acquittal of falsely accused historic sex crime case

6th February 2017 | Sex Offences News & Stories|
Nick Titchener headshot

Nick Titchener

Managing Partner

Courtroom

Our client (a teacher) was accused by a former pupil of St Paul’s School of indecent assaults between 1984-86, when both were at the school, but on 4 November 2016 a jury at Southwark Crown Court in London found her not guilty of both charges.

The jury took just 65 minutes to reach a unanimous decision on both counts. The case, which formed part of Operation Winthorpe, was covered by reporting restrictions, which prevented any comment until the conclusion of the linked Trials. Stephen Halloran, Solicitor, said: “Our client is immeasurably relieved that this is over and that she can start to piece her life back together. After all this time, she still cannot imagine why a former pupil would fabricate such a story. She would like to thank her family, friends, colleagues and students (past and current) for their belief in her innocence and their support throughout this awful experience.”

“Our client had no inkling of how these allegations came about. She strongly disputed the charges from the outset, and was placed under immense stress during the two years before the case was taken to trial. During this time, our client was not permitted to teach, and her health suffered under the pressure of the investigation.”

Our experience in dealing with serious sexual allegations of this kind assisted in the not guilty verdicts being returned by the Jury. The historic nature of the allegations required careful consideration of all of the issues involved in the case and then focussing on the specific window of time in which it was alleged the offences were committed.

This enabled our defence to the historic sexual assault charges to concentrate on specific time periods and by using evidence that we were able to uncover it was then possible to undermine the allegations in their entirety.

For more information on historic sex crime contact Lawtons Solicitors on 0333 577 0522

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