By Eric King--
The Met Police has apologized to a student for a series of errors in the handling of a failed rape trial.
A police review found that a “lack of knowledge” by police and prosecutors was to blame for the collapse of a rape trial involving Liam Allan.
The officer in charge of the case failed to find key evidence among 57,000 messages on the alleged victim’s mobile phone, the report found.
22-year-old Mr Allan, 22 was charged with 12 counts of rape and sexual assault.
The CPS eventually dropped the case against Mr Allan at Croydon Crown Court after three days when the evidence on a computer disk containing 40,000 messages revealed the alleged victim had pestered him for “casual sex”.
The Met Police said the officer in charge of the case had asked to be moved to other duties, but has not been disciplined because there was no evidence of misconduct.
REVIEW
A joint review by the Met and Crown Prosecution concluded that problems with disclosure in Mr Allan’s case were caused by “a combination of error, lack of challenge, and lack of knowledge”.
The Met said it has drafted in 120 officers to review 600 rape and sexual assault cases where a suspect has been charged to identify any similar problems Met Police’s Cdr Richard Smith and Claire Lindley, from the CPS, met face-to-face with Mr Allan on Monday to discuss the findings into the review.
“It is clear from our review that both the Met and the CPS did not carry out disclosure procedures properly in this case,” Cdr Smith said.
“Although we are confident there was no malicious intent in this case, it was important that we carried out this urgent review and learn lessons from it.”
Ms Lindley said Mr Allan’s case had highlighted some “systemic and deep-rooted issues”.
She added: “The prosecutors involved in this case did not sufficiently challenge the police about the digital material.
“That meant that it took longer than was necessary to drop Mr Allan’s case. For that, the CPS has offered an unreserved apology to him.”