Tens of thousands stuck in ‘limbo’ to find out if they face criminal charges

[ad_1]

Tens of thousands of people have been left stuck in “limbo” for more than a year to find out if they will face criminal charges, figures uncovered by The Independent show, with one woman forced to wait seven years to clear her name.

The tool of “release under investigation”, also known as RUI, was introduced by the government in 2017 to allow police to release suspects after their post-arrest interview in a similar process to bail.

But, under the controversial rules, there is no oversight or restrictions in place to protect alleged victims, with police allowed to keep the investigation open indefinitely – unlike with bail, where extensions beyond nine months must be approved by a magistrate.

Recent figures analysed byThe Independent show that, in the year to March 2023, more than 30,000 people were left waiting more than a year to discover whether they will be charged – while only fifth of all RUIs ended in a criminal charge.

In some instances, suspects and victims have been left in this limbo for years on end. MPs and legal critics describe the uncertainty as “misery”, while those caught up in the system say they would rather be charged than not know what is happening to them.

Krista Brown had allegations hanging over her for seven years (supplied)

Krista Brown was arrested in 2017 as part of serious fraud allegations brought by HMRC. She was finally charged in 2020 – but it took another three years for her case to get to court. Although she was acquitted in September last year, she only received documents confirming her innocence this week, finally bringing her seven-year ordeal – during which she suffered a mini-stroke and became suicidal – to a close.

“It’s a big black hole, an abyss that they can just throw people into,” she told The Independent. “There’s no accountability, no audit, no reviews, no response on how long an investigation takes. It’s changed me forever.”

Another example is the high-profile case of former Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson, who was arrested by Merseyside police in December 2020 as part of Operation Aloft, an investigation into allegations of bribery and witness intimidation linked to building deals in Liverpool.

His arrest prompted his suspension from the Labour Party and Anderson decided not to seek re-election. Nearly three-and-a-half years after being released under investigation, the police probe is still ongoing.

Branding RUI “fundamentally unjust”, Tory justice committee chair Sir Bob Neill told The Independent: “It’s not fair on defendants, because these people are left hanging – you can think of public figures [as well as] ordinary individuals – who find their life on hold.

“Suppose it’s an allegation of dishonesty, or a sexual allegation… that can affect their work and all manner of things. It’s also unjust to victims and complainants.”

“It’s just human misery,” criminal defence lawyer Stephen Davies added. “During this pre-charge arena, people were losing their jobs, university was on hold, mental health – you name it, I’ve seen every kind of suffering caused by RUI.

Former Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson is still waiting to find out if he faces criminal charges after being arrested December 2020 (Getty Images)

“The end date is the key bit, because [with bail] it focuses the mind of police and they have to work towards that date. If you don’t have an end date, as human behaviour would dictate, you just have this limbo.”

RUI was introduced in 2017 as part of the Policing and Crime Bill, when “the pendulum was swinging too far towards draconian bail conditions”, said Mr Davies, who believes the procedure acted as a “pressure valve for austerity”, allowing police to drip feed new cases into the creaking courts system.

Although the law was reformed in September 2022 to reduce the use of the procedure in favour of pre-charge bail, new Home Office figures show RUI was still used tens of thousands of times last year.

Figures show more than 30,000 people from the 140,000 cases closed over that period were left waiting more than a year to discover whether they would be charged with a crime or not. Over a quarter of police forces failed to provide data, meaning the true number was likely far higher.

”No further action” was taken against 93,226 people – equating to two thirds of all cases closed in that year.

Sir Bob added: “It’s very troubling that the police don’t seem to be responding to what was the clear wish of parliament that this should be reined back.”

While there was no parliamentary debate on RUI at the time it was introduced, then National Police Chiefs’ Council chair Dame Sara Thornton warned MPs they were “creating a new category of person” which was potentially “more problematic” than bail itself.

Noting the lack of time limits, she told MPs: “If that were me, I do not know whether I would prefer to be on bail or still a suspect in a live criminal investigation.”

Following the introduction of RUI, the use of bail quickly plummeted. In 2020, MPs were told that bail cases had dropped from 216,178 in 2017 to 43,923 in the space of a year, contrasting with 193,073 RUI releases.

New reforms were introduced in November 2022 to revert the presumption towards bailing suspects – rather than using RUI. But Home Office figures show no drop in the number of RUI cases concluded in the year to 31 March 2023, compared with the 12 months prior.

Ms Brown described the RUI process as “the hardest part of the whole experience”.

“My professional reputation was everything to me, I’d worked so hard for it and to lose that under a false accusation, it was immense,” said Ms Brown, who founded recruitment company Persona in 2008. “When you’re on RUI there’s absolutely nothing you can do, you’re literally at the mercy of the investigating team.”

She added: “Once my charges actually arrived in 2020 I found it weirdly easier to manage because you had dates, everything was accountable.”

Ms Brown’s trial was delayed three times over the space of three years before prosecutors eventually offered no evidence against her last September.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “It is a priority for this government to deliver justice for victims and to ensure a fast and effective criminal justice system.

“We recognise concerns around the use of Released Under Investigation (RUI) and have introduced reforms to the pre-charge bail system through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act to better protect victims. This includes the removal of the presumption against pre-charge bail which should encourage a move away from RUI.”

[ad_2]

Source link