Justice delayed or justice denied? Investigating non-recent sexual allegations (w/ Gary Pankhurst)

Sexual crime remains a matter of deep public concern and has received considerable scrutiny over the years. A pivotal event was the unprecedented reporting of sexual allegations that followed a TV documentary in October 2012 about the late Jimmy Savile leading to the Metropolitan Police forming Operation Yewtree. This talk seeks to place these events in context, to understand the factors that can impact upon the investigation and how it continues to shape the police approach to allegations reported sometimes years after the events. These types of allegation will always raise strong opinions among commentators. Some believe that such a serious crime as child abuse should always go before the courts regardless of time passed. There are others who state it is an affront to natural justice and that such prosecutions are unsafe. We will explore whether delays in reporting can secure safe and ethical prosecutions or inevitably lead to justice denied for the accused or the complainant.

Gary is currently a PhD Candidate at Newcastle University, having recently retired (2015) after completing a 30-year career with the Metropolitan Police. He worked as a Detective on major and complex crime investigations both within the UK and overseas. He has specific expertise in the investigation of sexual offences and offences against children. He worked on many high profile investigations including the Jimmy Savile Enquiry (Operation Yewtree) working as the interview adviser and case officer for a number of the widely reported cases.

He has an operational and academic interest in the structure and conduct of investigative interviews with witnesses and suspects. He is a member of the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group (iIIRG) and is researching the elicitation of information in interviews with suspected sex offenders.

This event is jointly hosted with Goldsmiths’ Forensic Psychology Unit.

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