Press Release

23 June 2006

Frivolous police prosecutions must stop

Judge Bruce Davidson should be congratulated for abruptly ending a trial before there was any chance for a miscarriage of justice. A Wellington teacher had been unnecessarily put through the pain and suffering of sex abuse charges that should never have been brought.

While sex abuse is a very serious crime and should be treated seriously, this is no excuse for the police to make charges frivolously. The police should be well aware of the harm that they are capable of perpetrating when they charge innocent men with the serious crime of child molestation.

The police have no excuse for such incompetence. It is over a decade since the Christchurch Creche case, and in that time most professionals involved in sex abuse allegations have become far more aware of problems of false memory, and the many other reasons why a very large proportion of sex abuse allegations are actually false.

ENDS

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