What really happened part five

So there we were. Two allegations levelled against me. Both of a sexual nature against “vulnerable” 15 year old girls. If I was accused of stealing two Mars bars or dodging tax twice or even burgling two houses, The general opinion is neither here nor there. Although they are still criminal offences, there certainly isn’t the witch hunt attitude associated with offences of a sexual nature. Whilst I do not want to stray into the rights and wrongs of such an argument, it means that as soon as people read I was accused of two offences of a sexual nature and convicted of one, I simply must have done them and undoubtedly many more besides. I am a monster, an evil man who should be hung from lamposts and thrashed with sticks to burn the demon out of me.

“The very next day I went to the news agents near my home (30 seconds walk, literally) to get a big bottle of whiskey and some cigarettes. On the road running adjacent to the newsagents, there was Ds Barnard's car. What was that doing there? Was he following me? Was he watching me?. “

After a year which has seen Greater Manchester Police (GMP) reach new lows in the stories which are too often a regular feature of our local and National press, we have to ask if GMP are out of control and if the Independent Police Complaints Commission are helping to put them there.

Over the last 4 years one things has become all too obvious. Greater Manchester Police and the Greater Manchester Police Authority will do anything to prevent Kristian's conviction being overturned.

Confidence in your legal team

What do you do when someone makes false allegations against you or a member of your family; this sort of thing doesn’t happen to people like us/you it’s the kind of thing you hear about on the news and in the papers. You may be moved into feeling sorry for the victims once you have watched one of those miscarriage of justice programmes that seem to be coming more and more frequent recently. However sometimes life deals you some hefty blows and once you get over the initial shock and anger of what has happened, you quickly realise that if you are to be of any use to the person being accused of something they did not do, you need become very focused and determined very quickly.

When something like this happens, you clearly need to seek out legal help and assistance. In KJ’s case he was provided with legal assistance by the Police Federation, but he had no say in who was to represent him or the choice of solicitors provided for him. He also has no way of knowing how good that representation is, because unlike many other professional sectors, Lawyers are not league tabled or have any sort of performance related indicators with which to measure them against. Early on in Kristian’s case he naively believed that because he was innocent then justice would prevail. He has since been disavowed of any such notion and has learnt the hard way that the truth played no part in his conviction. So basically you take a big chance and place your trust in the competence of the legals.

Sadly, and all too often we are misled into believing that solicitors, barristers and anyone who has any connection with the legal side of your fight will place as much importance as you do on proving your innocence. The reality is that you have now become part of a process which is guided by targets and legal niceties. Despite any concerns you may have about your legal team at this point, you succumb to promises that the best is yet to come. For us, that promise never materialised and Kristian ended up with a conviction he should never have had given the prosecutions own evidence.

The biggest mistake we made was not to become more involved with what was happening from a legal standpoint. Hindsight is a wonderful thing whose only purpose is to keep you awake at night going over things you wished you had done better. We truly believe that Kristian has been shell shocked by this whole dreadful experience; he/we placed far too much trust in the solicitor and barristers abilities to prove him innocent. Why wouldn’t we, that’s what we are led to believe they do, just like on the telly, they actually use their own initiative and think outside the box in an effort to build a defence. Sadly it seems that much of the legal process is just that, a process with lots of evidence getting “agreed” often without your knowledge.

You only realise what’s happened when you get to trial, by which time it’s too late. With the person being accused becoming merely a postage stamp on the bigger envelope. So here are a few pointers that might help you in your fight for justice.

• Use your instinct; if you have concerns about your legal team’s ability to fight your case, then you are probably right. Common complaints such as they don’t follow things up, they don’t carry out your wishes, they don’t answer your letters, phone calls or emails, then take decisive action before it’s too late. To do otherwise you could find yourself with a conviction for something you didn’t do as we did. Never be afraid to stick your neck out and if necessary as many times as necessary until you get a decent legal team.

• Make sure that you question things and if you don’t understand ask for explanations in PLAIN ENGLISH and not legal speak. There is no question that can’t be asked if it it’s important to you. Remember, you are paying the legal bill one way or another privately or as a tax payer.

• Check out the internet as there are loads of websites that highlight solicitors and barristers that give poor service. Some are quite “Honest” in their reviews. It’s worth a quick check to see if your legal team is listed or not. We wish we had seen this before as ours was listed twice, albeit the London office of the same firm.

• You should be determined to win at all times, whatever blocks are placed in front of you, just take a deep breath and head down and keep going. Use the phrase “Stop telling me what you can’t do and start showing me what you can do”. Don’t be put off by the constant rebuttals and bland replies that are designed to make you go away and stop complaining. Put your best Victor Meldrew hat on.

• Only afford lawyers your respect and confidence when they have demonstrated to you that they are worth it. Try not to be intimidated by the air of importance so many solicitors and barristers float in on. Nothing or nobody is as important as your liberty and you’re innocent being proven.

• Where necessary, complain to the relevant bodies such as the CPS,(Crown Prosecution Service) your relevant Police force headquarters)in our case it is Greater Manchester Police, the solicitors and then to their governing body the Law society or The Bar Council, which is for complaints against your barrister. The probation service, if you are unhappy with any aspect of the treatment you have received and always challenge unprofessional behaviour, assumptions being made about you, reports that do not reflect what transpired in your meeting with them. In our case KJs first meeting was farcical, the probation officer didn’t even have the correct or relevant file, he had the file which related to the allegation KJ was found Not Guilty on. Despite complaining they just attempted to circle the wagons and make excuses which dripped of management speak and managed solutions. I think you know where I am coming from. Pressure will be applied if you have been convicted to “accept” your conviction, because after all you must have done it if the jury found you guilty. They may well be able to take away your freedom for a short while but resists all attempts to steal your credibility too. It’s difficult if you know you are innocent to show any remorse for something you haven’t done, that bit isn’t allowed in the Probation Service handbook. Like the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses that keep trying to convert you to their path.

• Make sure that you keep all copies of letters sent, postage receipts (recorded delivery at the post office) any emails sent always request receive and read receipts when you send your emails.

• Remember that even if you are being funded by the Legal Aid system, you are still entitled to good service and a good defence. Few people realise that YOU instruct the solicitor or barrister not the other way around. When it goes wrong they will be quick to tell you that you didn’t instruct them to do something.

Spreading the Word

Use Social Networking such as Facebook, YouTube and the many others that are out there. One way to spread the word and to seek help is to use the many social networking sites to get people talking about your case. We have utilised this method of communication and a discussion group has been set up on Facebook for Kristian called Justice4KJ group and at the time of writing over 200 people had signed up to it in a very short space of time. What does this do, it puts your plight out there, it gets people interested in what’s happened and what is happening, it creates an arena where people can support offer support for the wrongly accused person and also for those left behind. Perhaps most importantly it means that your friends can tell their friends who tell their friends and so on.

Build a website

The purpose of a website is to put your story out there and make sure that people are kept informed of what is happening. It is also the only place to ensure that true and accurate facts about the case are printed, so that people can read the truth about your situation not something made up on the way through the wardrobe into Narnia. A website also provides a platform from which you can refute some of the more “sleazy” headlines used by the press and to which we mere mortals seem powerless to stop. Our experience has been that despite being in court, most of the journalist placed their own spin on that which happened in the court room, facts, the news items produced in KJ’s case story bore little or no resemblance to the facts. Clearly Headlines such as “Pervert Cop” sell more papers apparently than “Cop wrongly accused by serial lair and miscreant”.

What is most infuriating according to other wrongly accused people is that these same newspapers are nowhere to be seen or have no interest in your victory in the Appeal court when your name is cleared. So a website is a good way of keeping people up to date and allowing people to participate in a factual account of your plight. Look upon newspapers as good for lighting fires with and wrapping up fish and chips.

Supporting Websites

Look for websites and forums relevant to your “allegation”. In the case of Kristian was accused of a sexual allegation and therefore we looked at many websites with forums which support people wrongly accused of sexual crimes. There are many sites that refer to those wrongly accused of other crimes and who offer support and advice on who to fight for justice. Some of the stories and miscarriages of justice that I came across when researching the web are just breathtaking in their injustice and its only when you are victims of such injustice yourself, do you realise how badly wrong the British Legal System can go wrong.

Remember, nil desperandum carbororundum, an old Army saying which stands for “Don’t let the bastards grind you down”.

From a very young age Kristian has been a gentle person whom everyone liked. When he was a baby he was so cuddly that people kept wanting to pick him up and cuddle him. Like his brothers Kristian has been brought up to be honest and considerate to others as well as motivated and dedicated to duty.

Welcome to

This is a website dedicated to Kristian Abbott, and the fight both to clear his name, and to obtain his freedom from yet another gross miscarriage of justice.

 The site is open to all but, in order that we do not have people making grossly defamatory or untrue statements about either Kristian or those who put him behind bars, we require that everyone register for the site. It is simple to do all you have to do is go to the part named Login or register  and follow the instructions.

In November 2008, Kristian Abbott was found guilty of a crime he did not commit, and was sent to prison in January 2009 for 21 months. Since the original investigation, Kristian has maintained his innocence, and has been the victim of a corrupt investigation and lies throughout. This website will give you information about Kristian Abbott and his fight for justice.

Please Register to Use the site. Your details are kept secret always.

The allegations by S A were first  made in April 2007.

Kristian was devastated to be arrested and accused in front of his fellow officers at Littleborough Police Station. He had not long been on shift and here he was in the awful position of a criminal. The complainant, S A, had made a complaint to the people who ran the care home she lived at in Todmorden West Yorkshire, which is where the incident was alleged to have taken place.

Why Not West Yorkshire Police?

For whatever reason the manager of the care home, Rochelle Hay, chose to ring the Greater Manchester Police at Littleborough rather than the West Yorkshire police who were the force responsible for the area covering both the offence and the care home. This decision by Rochelle Hey was to have far reaching consequences for Kristian. it is arguable that had Kristian been investigated by the West Yorkshire police, that this case would never have come to trial. 
Instead, it was investigated by the corrupt officers from the GMP Professional Standards Unit (PSD). The inspector who took the initial control of the case at Littleborough, Inspector Liz Holdershaw, was herself a former member of the PSD and she handed it off to them straight away. S.A. has a record as long as your arm  and has made several allegations of a sexual nature before and after Kristian's case  if you read the article about her you will see that she really is not a very nice person.

Corrupt officers

The investigating officer from the GMP PSD was one Inspector Brian Dorian and his second in command was one detective Sgt. Paul Barnard who was aided by PC Natalie Kershaw.  The Police Regulations, which govern how the police conduct investigations, state quite clearly that an investigating officer should not be familiar with the officer under investigation.  Barnard was known to Kristian and had a run in with him prior to the first allegation and, worse, he lives only 200 metres from where Kristian lived at the time of his investigation and trial.  Indeed, Barnard told Kristian when he could not lay a false charge on him, "I will get you one day".  Natalie Kershaw used to work with Kristian at Littleborough police station for almost 2 years. There was no love lost between the two as Kristian is a good looking young man and Ms. Kershaw is not exactly page 3 material. So it is difficult to see how Kristian could have had a fair investigation.

This was to prove all too true in the months before the trial and it continued over into the trial. With hindsight, we can now see how Barnard set out to trap Kristian and stitch him up. He, Barnard, withheld evidence, destroyed evidence, deliberately ignored evidence that could have helped Kristian, committed perjury in Court, conspired to pervert the course of justice on at least two occasion that we know about. He, and Kershaw, set out on a vendetta which would lead them, helped by Dorian, to interfere with witnesses whilst the trial was in progress. Why is it you may ask that nothing has been done about this unholy group of perverted, corrupt police officers who, by rights, should be behind bars for a very long time. Well attempts have been made to make complaints to GMP about this evil crew, but GMP under the auspices of its Chief officer, Peter "Rainbow Warrior" Fahy, have simply used every method they can to try to shut the family up and deny their complaints.  In doing so, Fahy, aka Commandant Lefarce, the chief constable, has managed to turn himself into a lawbreaker by refusing to deal with our complaint. You can read more about that in the articles about GMP.

Lawyers who lie

On this site we also accuse the barrister and solicitor of deliberately throwing the case and failing miserably in their duty to put forward an effective defence for Kristian. We will also accuse the barrister, Charlotte Crangle of deliberately lying to both the family of Kristian and to her own head of chambers. These are strong claims and this site would not publish them unless it was absolutely sure of it's facts. The evidence is there.

The trial itself was a farce whereby the "defence team" failed to put up any kind of defence and agreed most of the evidence with the prosecution prior to the trial and without consulting Kristian at any stage.  Why did a barrister of supposedly 15 years experience and, allegedly, an expert in this field, lose a case that was there to be easily won? We may never know but we hope to show you on behalf of Kristian and his family, just how this terrible miscarriage of justice came about.

The trial was made up of two allegations by different girls. One the allegation by S A, was the one that Kristian was found guilty of by a majority verdict after many hours of jury deliberation.  The other, equally taking a long time for a verdict, found Kristian Not Guilty, probably due to the conflicting lies told by the witnesses, a cast iron alibi that Barnard failed to find, an identification parade where the complainant not only did not identify Kristian, but she actually identified another person as the alleged offender. We shall be dealing with the S. A.  case but will also publish the details of the DG allegation to show how hard Barnard worked to try to stitch Kristian up.  On the one hand you could say that one allegation could be false, but bring in  two allegations and you are talking "no smoke without fire". The truth is that Barnard deliberately set the second allegation up to bolster the first one in Court. The main complainant not only could not identify Kristian on an ID parade, She actually positively Identified someone else.

We shall not shirk on this site to expose the whole corrupt tissue of lies by Barnard and his cronies and we have absolutely no fear that they will take legal action as all of it is true.

The force that Kristian was once so proud to belong to has a lot of questions to answer in this matter. The parents of Kristian Abbott made a complaint to the then Chief Constable Michael Todd, about the behaviour of the investigating officer in the case,way back in November 2007.

Since the autumn of 2007 I have been raising concerns with Greater Manchester Police over the way that Kristian’s case was investigated. I made a complaint in 2007 and this was allegedly looked into by the Professional Standards dept of GMP. Comments have been made on this site about whether that is what should happen in a democratic society. In my mind there can be no doubt that, given the recent record of GMP, a department of that force should not investigate a complaint against one of its members.

Be that as it may, the report on the complaint came back in early 2008 completely exonerating the activities of DS Barnard. Since then I have written to the Chief Constable of GMP on several occasions raising serious concerns about the activities of the investigating officer DS Barnard. Those concerns have until now been totally ignored. I wrote to the Greater Manchester Police Authority about my complaints and they fobbed me off. Others have written to MPs, House of Commons Committees and Ministers outlining our concerns about the way this investigation was handled.

Our MP, Ivan Lewis, wrote to the Chief Constable raising our concerns and was answered by a superintendent from the Professional Standards Department who did nothing more than lie to the MP. I therefore wrote back to the Chief Constable this month and laid out my complaints and reminded him of his duties under the law. The relevant law is the 2002 Police Reform Act and the 1999 and 1996 Acts which require the Chief Officer of any force, to follow a procedure in cases of complaints such as the one I have made. I also copied my letter to the North West head of the IPCC and the entire membership of the GMPA as well as Ivan Lewis MP.

Over the last couple of weeks the website owners have noted an increased level of activity from members of GMP and the legal profession on the website. Now, they could be just interested in a well written and informative website or they could be actually looking into the complaints that Kristian’s supporters have made about his wrongful conviction and the appalling role that certain officers from GMP have played in it.

Or they could just be looking to see if any laws have been broken on the site, so that they could somehow “get at” the people who have written it. Which one it is I will leave to you to decide. One does wonder why, if they need information about Kristian’s case, they don’t just simply look into my complaint or even easier, get in touch and ask me.

Today I received a letter from the Chief Constable’s Office, telling me that they have received my letter and that they will comment on the issues I have raised in due course. Now, even if they come back and say there is no justification to my complaint, they have to give reasons for that decision. I have news for them, the evidence is there and they just have to look for it. We shall give them opportunity to evaluate our complaints, which are serious ones, before saying anything else on this site about this matter. However, in the future I shall ask the kind permission of the website owners to publish all the correspondence between myself, the Chief Constable, (including the one I gave him personally and he ignored) the GMPA and the PSD of GMP. I will do this in the public interest, as it will give others an insight into how complaints are handled by the various bodies and especially by GMP. I will do this in the probably vain hope that these bodies might learn from their mistakes and improve the way they do business.

KJ’s Dad