4 No Further Action
28. The investigation into Paul Gambaccini started
on 4 April 2013, following an allegation made by a single complainant.
The case was later dropped by the police on 5 September 2013 for
insufficient evidence. Then on 26 September 2013, a second individual
came forward and Mr Gambaccini was arrested on 29 October 2013
by officers from Operation Yewtree. He was released and initially
bailed until 8 January 2014. His file was passed to the CPS on
10 February 2014. Between January 2014 and 10 October 2014, when
he was eventually told that no further action would be taken,
he had been re-bailed six times. At one point he found out he
was being re-bailed only via the media; neither he nor his solicitor
was notified directly. He believed that the dates of his re-bailing
were chosen to coincide with announcements relating to other Yewtree
cases. He said he did receive a reason each time, but it was "always
opaque and in one case it was not a true statement."[42]
He felt that he was a victim of a witch hunt:
You have captured the essence of the witch hunt,
which is to seize any allegation, no matter how flimsy; arrest
you; publicise you through their recognised intermediaries and
then just see what comes; sit back and wait for the phone to ring.[43]
He was told by the CPS case officer that sometimes
the release of someone's name prompts the telephone to ring and
ring, but when Mr Gambaccini's name was released the phone never
rang. At the time that he was told there would be no action against
him, he had spent almost twelve months on bail and in all that
time, no one had come forward. [44]
Kate Goold, said that during that time:
I did not really know what was going on. I had
no idea what investigations were taking place or where those investigations
were going and the weight of the evidence. All I knew was that
there were no further complaints made, which was a concern because
I was concerned about Mr Gambaccini's name being in the public
domain, but I was given absolutely no further information.[45]
29. The proposals in the Home Office consultation
should improve the amount of information given to a suspect at
each review stage. Even so, we find it difficult to understand
why someone would be kept on bail for several months and then
be told that there would be no further action, without any more
information.
False allegations
30. In the case of Mr Gambaccini, he felt strongly
that the allegations against him were wholly fictitious, but they
had nonetheless caused him irreparable damage. The CPS has carried
out some research into the number of prosecutions for false allegations,
but in rape and domestic violence cases. Their review of all such
cases between January 2011 and May 2012, found 5,651 prosecutions
for rape and 111,891 for domestic violence. Of those, there were
35 prosecutions for making false allegations of rape, 6 for making
false allegations for domestic violence, and 3 for both rape and
domestic violence. A significant number of the false allegations
came from young, often vulnerable, people. While the proportion
of prosecutions for false allegations is small, the CPS recognises
that such false allegations can ruin people's lives and "those
falsely accused should feel confident that the Crown Prosecution
Service will prosecute these cases wherever there is sufficient
evidence and it is in the public interest to do so."[46]
31. It may be that, in addition to the legal route
for libel, someone who has been held on bail for a prolonged time
without being charged, and their reputation ruined, there should
be a mechanism for the person to receive an acknowledgement that
they were falsely accused. In the Chris Jeffries case, the Chief
Constable of Avon and Somerset, Nick Gargan, wrote to Mr Jeffries
in the following terms:
I write formally to acknowledge the hurt that
you suffered as a result of that arrest, detention and eventual
release on police bail in connection with the murder of Joanna
Yeates in December 2010 and which was the subject of huge media
interest. […] I accept unequivocally that you played no part
in the murder and that you are wholly innocent of the crime.[47]
32. The implications of prolonged bail is not limited
to sexual offences. There are examples of journalists being bailed
for long periods, and not necessarily being convicted at the end
of it. Operation Elveden and Operation Tuleta had led to several
journalists spending considerable time on bail, as long as two
years in some cases, prompting the Metropolitan Police to admit
that "there is genuine concern on our part about the length
of time that some of those arrested have been bailed".[48]
33. We recommend that, where a person has been
on bail for longer than six months, and where the final decision
is to take no further action, the CPS should write to the individual
explaining the decision. The CPS said that they write to the complainant
to give an explanation when a case is not proceeded with. In Mr Gambaccini's case there was a decision for No Further Action.
Mr Gambaccini told the Committee that the case against him was
fictitious. We believe it is unfair to write to the complainant
and not to the person who had been complained against. This leaves
someone like Mr Gambaccini in limbo without anyone taking responsibility
for his twelve months of "trauma".
34. We recommend that the CPS write and issue
a formal apology to Paul Gambaccini with an explanation as to
why this case took so long.
35. The Committee has not considered the situation
of those who have not been arrested or bailed but have found themselves
in the eye of a media storm as a result of an investigation entering
the public domain. We believe in the principle of fairness and
timeliness which we have elucidated in the cases of constant bail
renewals. The police and the CPS should be as transparent as possible
regarding the progress of investigations as they operationally
can be, to avoid the situation where these individuals are subject
to the "fly paper" tactic described by Mr Gambaccini.
42 Q 6 Back
43
Q 30 Back
44
The second complainant was identified on 26 September 2013. Mr
Gambaccini was told there would be No Further Action on 10 October
2014. Back
45
Q 16 Back
46
Joint report to the Director of Public Prosecutions by Alison
Levitt QC, Principal Legal Advisor, and the Crown Prosecution
Service Equality and Diversity Unit, Charging Perverting the Course
of Justice and wasting police time in cases involving allegedly
false rape and domestic violence allegations, March 2013 Back
47
Christopher Jefferies told 'sorry' by police over arrest distress,
BBC News, 16 September 2013 Back
48
Liberty response to the Home Office Consultation on Pre-charge bail Back
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