Threatened at work by a customer

sharnad

fruitedeli wrote: »

When a father does something like this to someone not directly involved, it kind of says OP's client is indeed a rapist. OP should show some understanding instead of trying to make this father to be some sort of violent person, just for threatening to go to the daily mail.

It says that the father believed the accused to be a rapist and is taking it out on someone who is just doing their job

Charityworker

Just to let you all know, the person I was supporting in crown court accused of rape was found not guilty on all charges. Good job were not all as instantly judgemental as some of you were on this thread.

fruitedeli

Charityworker wrote: »

Just to let you all know, the person I was supporting in crown court accused of rape was found not guilty on all charges. Good job were not all as instantly judgemental as some of you were on this thread.

Not guilty doesn't mean innocent. Rape has always had a low conviction rate.

tomtontom

fruitedeli wrote: »

Not guilty doesn't mean innocent. Rape has always had a low conviction rate.

In legal terms, it most certainly does. This person must now be allowed to rebuild his life and his place in the community, without people like you continuing to judge him.

lincroft1710

Not guilty means that a jury came to a decision based (hopefully) on the evidence presented, rather than the pleadings of the defence counsel, that the accused was innocent of the crime.

The accused may have committed the crime, but in the eyes of the law he did not.

Undervalued

tomtontom wrote: »

In legal terms, it most certainly does. This person must now be allowed to rebuild his life and his place in the community

A finding of Not Guilty simply means that 12 "good men and true" were not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt of the person's guilt. They may or may not be innocent that is a different matter. However from a criminal point of view they are entitled to be treated as innocent and they can only be tried again in very exceptional circumstances (it used to be never but that is no longer the case).

However, it is perfectly possible for a civil case to be brought against then in respect of the same matter. There the burden of proof is much lower and the judge (or rarely a jury) only has to find it more likely than not (i.e 51%). This has happened quite often.

An obvious example (OK in the USA but same principle) was OJ Simpson. Found not guilts of two murders but later held liable in a civil court.

meritaten

it doesn't matter if the accused was guilty or not. they are entitled to legal representation and for a support worker if they have learning or mental difficulties. this is what the OP does. and it must be a difficult job, so well done OP for doing it.
however - as a volunteer for a charity the trustees of the charity have a 'duty of care' towards you. This behaviour was unacceptable and the trustees SHOULD have taken steps to ensure that it was dealt with.

Valli

Charityworker wrote: »

Just to let you all know, the person I was supporting in crown court accused of rape was found not guilty on all charges. Good job were not all as instantly judgemental as some of you were on this thread.

Thank you for the update. I do hope this means that the accuser's family can begin to accept the decision and, most importantly, leave you alone.

I also hope your employers are putting in place procedures to protect both their employees and their service users from harrassment.