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Police Caution...can it be appealed ? Impact on CRB

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Headteacher89 | 21:25 Mon 11th Jan 2010 | Criminal
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I'm a Headteacher and following the end of a relationship I was slow on the uptake and texted/called/visited to persuade partner that we should try again...nothing violent...nothing malicious...just naive love frankly.....when I finally got the message I went one last time to see her and she called the polcie and had me arrested for Harrassment.

Now I know that I was stupid, naive,,,etc etc...but I just thought the police would do the right thing...I am utterly ashamed that I ended up in a cell and frankly they could have got me to sign anything to get out of there...I agreed to a formal caution without speaking to a solicitor...now of course I have a caution against my CRB...which clearly in teaching is a massive no no...I've been to my Union (who basically said not to worry too much...minor offence...shouldn't have any impact really...) and now the school Chair of Govs who has to decide if this offence indicates that i'm unfit to teach/lead a school (frankly I feel so stupid...being so idiotic might !)....

I just know that a solicitor would have had a dispassionate view and moved things quickly away...frankly the time in the cell was more than enough to ensure I never ever go anywhere near the girl again...let alone the career threatening caution....

Can you appeal a caution ? I appreciate the fct that I signed to agree...but there almost needs a cooling off period...when the emotion wears away a little and rationality sets back in...

Is there anything at all that can be done ?
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Lol no Bob !!!!
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dh...I'm sorry to hear what happened to you...I can completely understand that in some situations women need significant protection from their partners...and it's great to know that that happens....what scares me though is that we have both been in a situation where the context has not been taken into account...and therefore guilty... and people judge you based on their perceptions of what may have happened....you and I will be lumped together in a group of people and labelled as having behaved really badly towards a woman...my guilt was being in love and misunderstanding the signs...I didn't do anything to harm or worry the girl...she always said that if we were to end she would need to do something that guaranteed we would stay away from each other (because we could both persuade each other to try again)...she's certainly achieved that ! Your guilt ?...of wanting to know about your child....both have used the police as a shield to hide behind....not because we are necc guilty of a crime but because they wanted to hide from us.
I repeat again....context should be everything...but apparently for some people and the police apparently it isn't.
Hi Headteacher, thank you for your kind words but it was actually 'bobjugs12' who experienced the matter regarding the police caution.

It is a minefield.
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you're right again....thankyou !!
I have looked into a matter like this for my cousin. Apparently, after five years you can write to the Cheif Constable and ask that the caution is removed from your file. You have to write the Force that issued the caution. It's not always guaranteed to work, but given the circumstances and your profession etc they may look kindly.
I have just been issued with a caution for harrasement. My ex has stopped me seeing my child since October. I saw her once on the 23rd of December for 5 hours I bought her christmas presents. We agreed I could have her on the 8th January for my bitrhday which she went back on. I have a court order saying i can have her every 2 weeks over night.
I went to the solicitor who sent her a letter to resume contact. I live 65 miles from her and i was in the area and I tried to pick up my daughter. I knocked on the door no answer, phoned from the phone box no answer. I knocked on the door again and the police arrested me where i spent 12 hours in a cell for just trying to see my daughter. I thought I had no choice but to accept the caution. I think the law is wrong.
by my readings in all 3 accounts the female has arrange the meet in trap you in a way where it makes you look a guilty party my advice for future and for those looking around or get into a problem ie a brake up and a child in in part is to meet in a public place where the exchange can be made.

this way there is a public eye on all dealings and any harrasment made that way you have your back up if you have no responcefrom phone calls seek solicator to do that part and go down the courts rout i know its a costly and time making but it will safe gaurd from the legal system that thinks all women are vunerbal,

which in some cases its not always the mail thats the stolker or vilent onefemales have been know to be the vilent one,

exscuse my spelling im dyslexic

thanks all
Hi
My son has been caught in the same way, although the circumstances were different.
He had a row with his stepmother. She is on edge due to the breakdown of her marriage. She became hysterical, threw a cup at my son, then phoned the police. They arrived just as my son threw a cake at her.
He was arrested and then felt EXACTLY as you described. He declined legal advice because he didn't know it was free and money is an issue. He was advised to accept a formal caution and told there would be no consequences as the caution would be held in the police station for a year and that would be that. On that basis he accepted the caution.
We have now discovered this is rubbish. My son's Caution is already on the police database and will remain there for his lifetime! The caution will come up if he needs an advanced disclosure and if he wants to visit America.
My son is in that position and now may loose his job. There is no appeal as he accepted liability.
We have been to an MP and are currently awaiting the outcome.
This is all about the Soham Murder Trial, when police were criticised for quashing a caution against Ian Huntley. They will not now quash a caution.
We have heard of a nurse who got a Caution for letting her road tax go out of date. She is appealing because she is looking for a job and now cannot get one.
I believe lots of people are going to be caught out by this ruling and I think the only way to remedy this dreadful situation is for all interested parties to work together.
If you would like to contact me about this, please email me at [email protected]
Hi
My son has been caught in the same way, although the circumstances were different.
He had a row with his stepmother. She is on edge due to the breakdown of her marriage. She became hysterical, threw a cup at my son, then phoned the police. They arrived just as my son threw a cake at her.
He was arrested and then felt EXACTLY as you described. He declined legal advice because he didn't know it was free and money is an issue. He was advised to accept a formal caution and told there would be no consequences as the caution would be held in the police station for a year and that would be that. On that basis he accepted the caution.
We have now discovered this is rubbish. My son's Caution is already on the police database and will remain there for his lifetime! The caution will come up if he needs an advanced disclosure and if he wants to visit America.
My son is in that position and now may loose his job. There is no appeal as he accepted liability.
We have been to an MP and are currently awaiting the outcome.
This is all about the Soham Murder Trial, when police were criticised for quashing a caution against Ian Huntley. They will not now quash a caution.
We have heard of a nurse who got a Caution for letting her road tax go out of date. She is appealing because she is looking for a job and now cannot get one.
I believe lots of people are going to be caught out by this ruling and I think the only way to remedy this dreadful situation is for all interested parties to work together.
If you would like to contact me about this, please email me at [email protected]
-- answer removed --
Sir. Good news at last!
It can now be done.

Many lawyers are now successfully reversing 'encouraged' cautions simply on the grounds that in many cases defendants agreed because they were so desperate to get out the modern day dungeons, that are cleverly designed to affect us psychologically, mentally and emotionally!

I too did a very similar thing to what you did and was treated like a rapist/terrorist!

During my detention, I saw a duty solicitor who said I should consider taking action for what he described as me 'being unlawfully held' as I had been there for just under 24 hours! Yes I know that they have up 24 hours to bring a charge, and that there is a queue of cases waiting to be dealt with. So isn't this more reason to perhaps deal with similar things on the spot?

Human emotions are powerful and sometimes hard to control so I disagree with the folk on here who (on top of the police) also told you off for contacting your ex! Obviously not very passionate or ever been in love! Same goes to the folk who tell you to accept your punishment because you admitted it! Obviously never felt the humiliation, deprivation, desperation and seclusion of the modern day prison cell!

The guy who drove the police van chatted as he drove me to the custody suite. He told me he was a civilian like me and that his role was similar to that of a 'bin wagon' dumping people at the processing centre. And warned me to ready to spend some time there.

Amazingly it was the taxi driver who picked me up after I was finally freed that informed me of the reversal process which I am currently looking into.

Above opinions are my own!
I believe that harassment law will continue to evolve. Bear in mind that what our two correspondents did -- visit an ex-girlfriend after she ended an affair, and phone a partner repeatedly overnight -- were not offences until 1997. Both offences were non-violent. They say that ignorance of the law is no excuse, but it will take many years for public awareness of the offence of harassment to take hold. Furthermore, with the police facing an 11% cut in headcount, I suspect that non-violent harassment will start to disappear off the police radar in some counties -- e.g. it may be Surrey Police have so little serious crime to look after that they can allocate big resources to harassment, but in the inner cities, I suspect claims of email harassment will take a very low priority.

Meanwhile we have the CRB problem that because of a relationship difficulty with an adult, the headteacher is now potentially deemed unfit to teach children. Ridiculous!

And I sense, time and time again, that the police tend to favour the woman's evidence. In some harassment cases, there has been argy-bargy in both directions, and it's a question of who complains first to the police becomes the official victim.

All of these issues point to a need for a review of harassment legislation.
Yes, you can appeal a Caution, but you have to do so within one month of its issue. It can be done either by agreement with the Police, or else by Judicial Review (costly).

I would never advise anyone to accept a Caution - IME the police use these against frightened middle-class people to threaten them into a nice neat disposal and increase their detection rates. I would also never advise anyone to answer questions in interview - always refuse and give them a 'prepared statement' instead. If I'd known that, I'd have saved myself a lot of bother. But this is what the police count on - most nice middle class people don't know their rights in a situation like this which is completely alien to anything they've ever experienced.

Police can only authorise a Caution if CPS decide the offence would otherwise go to court - ie that it meets the public interest test and the evidential test supports a greater than 50% chance of conviction should the offence go to court. If your Caution was administered without these tests being met, then you have good grounds to challenge it.

I had my Caution overturned on public interest grounds, but it took me over a year, because the police withheld my personal data from my solicitor for that length of time. Once I furnished the CPS with the full facts of the case, they overturned it within a week, though granted I had to threaten them with Judicial Review to achieve this.

Oh, and I'd also add, on the one-month rule - I'm not sure how hard and fast it is, if you have a reasonable explanation for not appealling sooner. Always worth a try.
Was really interested in this discussion. I have been living with a Caution for Battery for several years. My partner simply cut contact when I found out I was pregnant. ( baby planned by him) I did not get my head around that he said how much he loved me and then suddenly to stop taking my calls. I called him maybe once a day and texted twice a day and then I realised he obviously didn't want to be with me, but since he was an abusive and controlling man I had not told anyone i was back with him and there I was pregnant and no one knowing I had gone back to this guy. I asked him to tell me what part he wanted in the babies life if he did not want to be with me. He finally texted and told me to come to his house on a set date and time. I asked if I had to because i was feeling so tired. No reply - so I turned up as agreed. he drove right past me went in the house and shut the door. I knocked on the door and he let me in. But then walked away. I stayed in the conservatory as there was a very cold atmosphere - like the old days!!! I said what I wanted - he ignored me and went upstairs. I asked if he could just talk to me and I would go - no answer He took a shower and came down and then just stared at me like he hated my guts and said he didnot want to speak to me and I should get out.
Unfortunately I had done two things wrong 1. go in when he had behaved in the way he did. 2. Sit and wait for him to have the shower
But I was so desperate, I did not understand what was going on.. nothing had happened preceding this behaviour. So I said that he could not ignore that it was going on and I walked towards him. He gave me a shove, I fell over on the tiled floor. When I got up he had gone into the house. I am afraid I lost the plot completely and I slapped him about 4 times at the most. He stood there and coldly said " are you trying to give me a bloody nose?" I said no and left - very shaken. I am afraid I also apparently called him some names I would never normally use, but on reflection I don' t take them back. They were the truth!
Two weeks later I was called to the police station for a chat. When I got there, I was arrested. In shock I took the caution - after all I did slap him. But I too feel that it was metered out wrongly. The police did not look at the records to show how many times I had called frightened of this man, or that the man had been on two perpetrator programs of his own volition. They just took that circumstance and hammered me with it.
The result was that that then three weeks after this, the man took me to court. OMG. You might wonder why? Like I did. He aledged that I had been abusing him for four years and essentially used everything he learned in his perpetrator course and turned it on me. Luckily no account was given to his statement, because I would have fought it. But they just asked me not to contact him - I hadn't and so I would not. But the result was I was petrified to stay at my own home. I feared he would watch my home and make accusations about me. I had to carry a diary and log receipts as I was so afraid. In the end I fled my home, I changed my name and have stayed away. His baby is born, and as you can guess he tells his family he has no children as he nicely scared me so far away, that he can keep us his dirty secret. Too afraid to seek any maintenance as he will come after me in the same way he did then. I was just too stupid to realise he had planned it all.
Now too afraid to ever call the police. If this man comes for me again, I will flee again.
But who looks bad on the books now? Its me. I am desperate to get something done about it? I also am CRB checked, I used to volunteer and this man knew this and that it would cost me my job. The law failed- It has acheived nothing in this case except terrify me in a vulnerable state.
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Hiddenhurt...A lot of time has passed since I first wrote this - Whilst I now realise I was in a very different state of mind, and perhaps not thinking logically, I stand by the fact that I did not deserve the Caution and that actually when the Police officer asked me 'how we are going to manage this' I gave him a golden ticket by agreeing immediately, I should have argued or said simply that it was obvious that I had received sufficient punishment...that may not have been enough as the girl had lied so cleverly, but there was enough truth within her statement that I was, to a degree, guilty in the eyes of the woman police officer.
Essentially your problem is exactly the same now as mine though - I have been extraordinarily lucky that the LA and everyone who needs to know has agreed that it is irrelevant to my role - but - on applying for a future position I will always have to declare my stupidity, or, as you are if I want to do any kind of voluntary work....
My only comfort for you though is that in the event that you apply for something and it comes up on your CRB the lead person has to sit with you and discuss whether it has any impact...embarrassing indeed, but you will know that they really want you - they have a duty to keep that information secure from other people...Since my 'incident' I have employed someone with an issue on their CRB...generally volunteers are welcomed...obviously the right checks are always completed though !
I know and understand why some people have written so bluntly towards me on this forum...and I think a few years ago I would have agreed with them - but until you have actually been in this situation you don't truely understand...what I would like is for something to happen so fewer have the process happen...If someone had sat me down and said 'look you're being a prat - your job is on the line - it ould be viewed that you are harrassing someone, then that would have been more than sufficient...I suppose though not all people have the appropriate attitude towards the Police, and their professionalism is curtailed to the point that it is easier for everyone if the Caution is issued.
Headteacher - something silimar happened to me recently where I received a caution. As I understand it all cautions are referred to the GTC. Is this right? Did this happen to you?
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Yes...although they didn't do anything. They wrote to me and asked me for details of the incident, then wrote back and told me that although they were dsappointed they were not going to take it further. My advice, for what it's worth, is to be as open as you can with your HT and your union..they will decide what, if anything needs to be done. My major problem remaining is that whenever I want to apply for anything I have to write an explanation alongside the application form...not something I've yet tried, but something I'm not looking forward to....

Fundamentally as long as it doesn't affect children the LA/Govs/HT shouldn't be too bothered...but being as upfront an honest as you can helps...
Headteacher. How long before I should expect gtc letter?
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To be honest I can't remember the length of time...essentially they only find out after the Police have informed the relevant bodies...much more important is that you speak and get the support of the LA, HT and your Union (not necc in that order!) In their first letter they wanted me to explain the circumstances..my union rep offered to read it for me after I'd written it...at the risk of being obvious they don't have much information other than the title of the charge. Stress how sorry you are...but there was/is no impact on your school/performance as a teacher.
More fundamental too is that the GTC is going to be finished soon isn't it?...

I am assuming it isn't anything involving drugs or children and as my Union rep pointed out whilst we don't particularly like the GTC, they do understand that we are human and things go wrong.

Having been there (well tech still there !) I know it feels crap and may be taking up alot of your thinking - but being open with those who need to know, and getting your head down and working hard is the best course for you now.
Hi Headteacher
Did you try to appeal this?
I have been studying to become a teacher but have just received a caution for harassment. I don't have a job yet. In your experience as a teacher how much do you think this will affect me in trying to get a job as a secondary school teacher?
If you think you were unfortunate. I got a nice response from my ex girlfriend (we were together for 1 year), I sent three further emails just asking if she would consider coming back in a nice and nonthreatening way, got one email back saying she does not love me any more, then I sent three more, the last asking if she might consider just being friends sometime.
I was put in the cell for eight hours, said I didn't need a solicitor and now I have a police caution. I feel incredibly angry as I feel my future has been destroyed but I'm really hoping that is an over reaction.
At no point during my arrest did I admit to harassment, knowing that it upset or intimidate and at no during sending those emails did I know that it would. They told me that because I had admitted to sending the emails that was proof of guilt. The police threatened me with seizing my computer, searching my shared flat (I was particularly embarrassed by this as I live with two friends), might be given a full criminal conviction (didn't really understand how similar a caution is to it) and that I would have to go to court.
Thanks

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