Being on police bail for months on end when innocent can ruin your life

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/16/police-bail-theresa-may-limits

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The 6am knock on the door came as little surprise. With so many of my colleagues already arrested it seemed almost inevitable that as a long-serving Sun reporter I would also be hit by the scattergun approach of the police. At least six Scotland Yard officers, in plain clothes, stood outside my house on the morning of 19 September 2012. They were courteous and professional and I tried to remain the same. After being watched as I dressed I was taken into custody and put in a cell for six hours until my Sun-appointed solicitor arrived from London.

I was confident I had never broken the law in almost 13 years with the Sun and when I was presented with the flimsy allegations against me my confidence grew. They related to a couple of minor stories I had written more than six years previously and long forgotten about. My solicitor advised me to take a “no comment” approach and after five hours of questioning I left the police station on bail.

It was bail that lasted another 582 days – more than 19 months. It was not until April this year that I was told the police had no further interest in me and I would face no charges. On Wednesday, Theresa May, the home secretary, voiced concern about the length of time that suspects can be held on police bail and suggested limits may be imposed. Such a move is overdue. In the first few months I was concerned that other “evidence” would be found which would justify keeping me on bail for so long. But the months dragged on with no new developments at all, apart from my bail date being repeatedly extended to some random point in the future. There was never any explanation for it, just a standard police letter or perhaps a call from my lawyer to say “inquiries were continuing”.

About seven months after my first interview I was called in for questioning a second time but the fresh single allegation I was asked about was even weaker than the first ones. If that was all they could throw at me after all that time, I thought, the whole thing would surely end soon. I was wrong – my bail would continue for another year, with no explanation from anyone.

Unlike other colleagues I was fortunate in finding a new job outside the Sun, which had already been planned before my arrest, and I devoted most of my time and thoughts to that. I was not on endless “gardening leave”, kicking my heels with no idea of how long it would be before I returned to work. But my bail remained like a toothache, making me twinge every now and again when I realised I was still caught under the wheels of this anti-journalism juggernaut.

It caused me few sleepless nights because I knew I was innocent. Financially it cost me nothing because the Sun were paying for my lawyer. Those it affected the most were my family – my wife, daughter, son and my elderly mother.

I like to think my children, both young adults, took it in their stride and kept faith in my promises that it would all end well. But for much of it my daughter was going through her critical final year at university and my son was embarking on his first year away from home. Having the authorities leave a massive question mark hanging over the fate of their father for so long cannot be fair or right.

It was also unkind on my 80-year-old widowed mother who lives alone and spent countless hours fretting by herself that her eldest son had done something wrong and would end up in prison.

But it was my wife who felt it the most. It wasn’t until it was all over that she broke down and tearfully told me how she’d kept a brave face for 19 months because she wanted to be a strength for me. She knew deep down I was innocent, but that instinct was constantly challenged by the endless bail.

And there were my friends and everyone else who knew me. It all ended with a quick phone call from a TV journalist who heard about the decision of the CPS to drop the case before I did. After all that time, no one from Scotland Yard or the CPS had had the courtesy to contact me directly.

Of course there is a need for bail, but in my case it was grossly abused because there was nothing to stop the police from doing so. Having statutory limits should end the abuse.