"The detective wrote in his notes that the alleged victim was 'unreliable' and 'unstable'.
He also knew she had been convicted of dishonesty in the past. But he never passed on the information about her to his senior officers or to the Criminal Prosecution Service.
Had he done so, Warren Blackwell would have had a much stronger defence in court.
Instead DC Bell did not challenge what the woman was telling him, even though there seemed to be serious discrepancies in her story.
The IPCC says, in the absence of any forensic evidence linking Warren Blackwell to his accuser, the failure to challenge her account points to 'a poor quality investigation'."
REPORTER JANE DEITH: CHANNEL 4 NEWS;
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"Exclusive: As Northamptonshire Police offer an unreserved apology to a man who spent three and a half years in prison after being initially accused of rape by a serial liar, Warren Blackwell tells Channel 4 News's Jane Deith that he is still angry at his treatment," Reporter Jane Deith's Channel 4 News June 18, 2010, story on the Independent Police Complaints Commission's report into the Warren Blackwell case begins, under the heading, "Blackwell: 'serious police failings' in rape case."
"The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said there had been serious failings by three officers at Northamptonshire Police in their investigation that led to Warren Blackwell's conviction," the story continues.
"The 40-year-old spent more than three years in jail as a convicted sex attacker before being cleared by the Court of Appeal.
Asked by Channel 4 News whether he was still angry at his treatment, he said: "I am, but for me it's like ten years on so that anger recedes.
"You can't be the world's angriest man forever – wouldn't do my family any good.
"It's always there. I think about this every single day, it feels like yesterday for me."
The false accusation
Warren Blackwell must wish he'd never gone to the New Year's Eve party in Woodford Halse social club on the eve of 1999. Later that night, a woman who he didn't know and barely spoke to all evening, would be found outside the club, claiming she'd been violently raped.
More from Channel 4 News
- Should rape defendants get anonymity?
She told police she didn't see the face of the man who attacked her, but she gave police the names of five different men in the Northamptonshire village that she thought it could have been. Warren wasn't one of them. But it was him she picked out an identity parade.
There was no forensic evidence. The accusation of rape was changed to indecent assault. Warren Blackwell was charged.
The whole trial rested on the issue of her identification of him. He was found guilty by a majority verdict.
As he was led away to start a three year sentence, Mr Blackwell turned to the jury and said simply, 'You've got it so wrong'.
Now, 11 years later, the IPCC has investigated, and found that Northamptonshire Police got it horrendously wrong.
The woman, a serial false accuser of men, would normally have anonymity under the law. But, she was exposed when the peer Lord Campbell-Savours used his parliamentary privilege to name her in the House of Lords.
The IPCC findings
The IPCC has found that the detective who investigated the original allegation failed to disclose crucial information, which would have undermined the whole case against Warren Blackwell.
Early in the investigation Detective Constable Andy Bell was told by an officer from the neighbouring Leicestershire force, which had come across the woman in another criminal case, that there real doubts about her credibility.
The officer told DC Bell that she appeared to 'enjoy police attention', that there were concerns about her honesty, and any allegation she made would need corroboration.
Read the IPCC's full report here
The detective wrote in his notes that the alleged victim was 'unreliable' and 'unstable'.
He also knew she had been convicted of dishonesty in the past. But he never passed on the information about her to his senior officers or to the Criminal Prosecution Service.
Had he done so, Warren Blackwell would have had a much stronger defence in court.
Instead DC Bell did not challenge what the woman was telling him, even though there seemed to be serious discrepancies in her story.
The IPCC says, in the absence of any forensic evidence linking Warren Blackwell to his accuser, the failure to challenge her account points to 'a poor quality investigation'.
The IPCC also criticised the detective for failing to tell his seniors about further false accusations the woman made while Mr Blackwell was serving his jail sentence.
DC Bell, whom the IPCC believes should have faced a full misconduct hearing, retired three months ago.
When approached for a comment by Channel 4 News, he said he had retired, and didn't want to speak.
Mr Blackwell says, "The IPCC report was a massive investigation. In my view, it was hindered by Northamptonshire Police. To say they dragged their heels is an understatement. They didn't want to have to apologise to me."
Northamptonshire Police's Assistant Chief Constable Derek Talbot told Channel 4 News he was sorry for the mistakes in the investigation, but he still insists, "At the time, (she) was a credible witness. After a period in which perhaps we hadn't treated women's claims very well, we took all claims of sexual assault very seriously".
Warren Blackwell's response? "You should take every allegation seriously, but you should also test the evidence. It's obvious they didn't take it seriously enough."
8 year fight to prove his innocence
The now retired DC Bell won a commendation for the 'tenacious and sensitive' investigation which led to Warren Blackwell's conviction.
Mr Blackwell got nearly four years in prison. He was sentenced to three years, but when he went to the court to seek permission to appeal it was denied. This was two weeks before he was due to be released - but the judge added two more years to his sentence.
Mr Blackwell says this broke him. He collapsed, and spent nights pacing his cell. His cell was on A Wing, where 'vulnerable' prisoners were held at Littlehey Prison.
'Vulnerable' is defined as prisoners who have been sentenced for sexual offences, and could be attacked if they were living among other inmates.
A cruel paperwork error meant Warren Blackwell's supposed victim was put down as aged 13, not 31. So he was immediately labelled as a child abuser.
Warren Blackwell was forced to live cheek by jowl with convicted paedophiles who boasted about their crimes. He hid the photographs of his two children.
Only after Warren Blackwell had served his full sentence, did he win leave to appeal his conviction for a second time. The Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates possible miscarriages of justice, asked an inspector from West Midlands Police to pick over every detail of the case against Mr Blackwell.
Chief Inspector Steve Glover (now Chief Superintendent) of WMP uncovered the trail left by Mr Blackwell’s accuser after his trial, as she became a serial false accuser.
She did it seven times, changing her name each time. But each time her story was the same. She would claim she'd been grabbed from behind, dragged down a dark road or alley, and sexually assaulted, punched and cut.
Steve Glover spoke to officers who without exception had dismissed what the woman had claimed in the past as false. In one instance, she said she had been attacked by a man who had used a knife to score the word 'HATE' across her chest. The police surgeon confirmed it was self-inflicted, noting the word had been written backwards, as she was looking in the mirror.
And officers spoke to her daughter, who said she'd seen her mother self-harming and then claiming she'd been attacked. Officers in forces including Leicestershire and West Midlands Police, realised the women they had all spoken to was the same woman.
Steve Glover spoke to four more members of the woman’s family, including her ex husband and her mother, who all said she was a manipulative liar. Her daughter said she was 'every man's worst nightmare.'
It emerged that on the night Warren Blackwell allegedly assaulted her, she'd never been attacked at all. She had inflicted the extreme injuries on herself.
All this evidence was heard by the court of appeal in September 2006. This time the court quashed Warren Blackwell's conviction. He had finally cleared his name.
The cost of innocence
But innocence came at a cost. The government paid him compensation, but billed him £12,500 for his 'bed and board' while he was in prison. The rules say if someone is wrongly jailed, they must pick up the bill. Of course, if you're guilty, you don't pay for your keep.
Meanwhile, the woman kept several thousand pounds she earned as a 'victim' of crime. She has not been charged with perjury.
Asked what were the consequences for him and his family, Mr Blackwell said "it leaves very a bitter taste."
"You imagine walking around village and people are looking at you and you’re thinking what are they thinking?
"There's always going to be people that will say no smoke without no fire and that is something that sticks no matter what you do – you can't do anything about that.
"All I can ever do is answer questions that are put to me – I always have."
The question of anonymity
Warren Blackwell wants women who are proven to have falsely accused someone of a sexual offence, to lose their automatic legal right to lifetime anonymity.
He believes letting women who lie remain anonymous and potentially able to accuse other men, doesn't help the thousands of women who are genuine victims.
That's more important to him than the idea of anonymity for men accused of rape, until such point as they're convicted.
Not that it would have helped him of course, because he was convicted, albeit mistakenly, and of indecent assault, not rape.
But the issue of proposed anonymity for those accused of rape has been the subject of much debate in parliament since the new government took power.
David Cameron had seemed to propose anonymity till conviction. This drew severe objections from Labour's Harriet Harman, who said naming the accused during sex trials is a means of getting other women who may be victims to come forward for help.
Mr Cameron later seemed to suggest anonymity might only last until a person is charged.
The Ministry of Justice told Channel 4 News: "This is a sensitive issue which needs careful and extensive consideration so we are still in the process of gathering evidence. (...) There is still a great deal of work to be done and to speculate on its outcome would be highly premature."
Warning system
As for the woman, Channel 4 News has learned that since Warren Blackwell's conviction was quashed, police forces have a list of all her past aliases, to try to stop her making any further false accusations.
Knowing that she shouldn't be able to put any more men through the nightmare of being labelled a sex attacker is now perhaps the most important thing for Warren Blackwell. He knows just how devastating that can be."
The story can be found at:
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/uk/warren+blackwell+aposserious+police+failingsapos+in+rape+case/3684687
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
