Son's arrest, what to expect.

[Constantanxiety25]

My 20 year old son was arrested over a week ago, his girlfriend has made accusations against him. He was held in a police cell for almost 24 hours. He was released without charge but with restrictions about contacting the gf.

He says the accusations are false and has cooperated with the police, he handed his phone over as soon as asked for example.
He's never been in trouble before, not school or college, he has a small group of supportive friends.
She is his first girlfriend. He says she has done similar to an ex of hers.
He has a solicitor who has told him he should get a letter explaining what happens next. There's been no letter or any other communication since he left the police. He's contacted his solicitor trying to get more info but nothing is forthcoming.
My question is why this is taking so long? What he is accused of happened in her house so there's no CCTV to look at. There's his word / her word and arguments on the phone.

Over a week ago is nothing. It could take weeks or even months for a decision to prosecute or not. Did you post about this before, when he was arrested?

Anything to do with the police and courts takes a very long time. You could still be dealing with this in a year’s time. Just wait and see if they go forward with it or not.

I've not posted about this before.
Thank you for managing my expectations re timescale.

He hasnt been released without charge, he has been released with bail conditions whilst the investigation continues. Usually for 3 months and then that can be extended up to 9 months by police. The officer may not be trained to complete phone reads and will need to find someone who has capacity to do it for them. This could take months. Depending on the crime, some time out after 6 months after reporting (common assault, harrassment). Usually you don't get a letter, the officer in charge will contact him and solicitor if extending bail or if the investigation is no further action. This could be one of 35 incidents on that Officers screen. It takes a while unfortunately.

The solictor told him to expect a letter, but there was no timescale.

My son contacted the solictor about the letter a few days later and he said he has the letter and he'll email it, nothing has been sent.

If he knows she’s does this why did he start going out with her

Maybe he didn’t know until he was in the relationship. It’s not something you drop into conversation on a first date…

I can’t help at all. Wanted to say how truly awful for you all. I wouldn’t have had any idea about time frames either - who new things like this could take so long! Thinking of you all. Xx

This will probably take 6 to 9 months. He may be re-arrested or have bail conditions altered. Don't be surprised by either.

DV charges are "convincing narrative" NOT reasonable prospect of a prosecution, so he may well be charged, even with no "evidence".

Sorry OP, this will be a long, slow process.

I’m assuming she didn’t tell her himself, but he found out from someone else.

I posted a while ago when I had a similar experience. I was arrested on 28th February as a neighbour heard my wife and I arguing. She was devastated as it was just a silly arguement, nothing more
I received a letter dated 21st March from Social Work saying that I was going to be offered support rather than prosecution and I would be asked to attend an initial interview within the next three months.
It all seems to take a very long time.

It can take a while, the police can't assume just because hes never been in trouble before and she has allegedly done similar before that she is lying.

This. Also, it’s very common for women to lurch from abusive relationship to abusive relationship so the fact she’s made previous allegations before unless proven untrue (not just not proceeded with) won’t influence the police.

We are sadly in a similar position. Arrest was 2.5 months ago, not heard anything more since. Has to answer bail in a few weeks but no idea if they will drop the investigation, re-interview, charge or continue bail. We have been told unofficially that it is taking around 18 months for forensics to look at electronic devices so unlikely to drop investigation until then. So he is in limbo until then....

In case he does get charged he needs to establish himself as an upstanding young man with a good job/studying to become a responsible professional or similar, if he can. If he does appear in court it will help his defence lawyer present him in a positive light. He also needs to learn common sense about what he writes on any social media, in any communications with others by text/Whatsapp etc bearing in mind it will be there forever and could be used against him.

We were in a similar boat a while back. It was six months from initial interview (voluntary so not arrested) and handing over phone etc until receiving a voicemail from police saying they were taking no action.

I think it took about a month for the phone to come back but we were lucky that the investigating officer was ‘phone trained’, not the right wording but you get what I mean.

Sadly these things take a long time if your DS is not considered an immediate risk.

Been through something similar and it wasn’t case closed for almost a year.

You need to establish whether his solicitor has his letter or not. It seems very odd that the police have sent the letter to a solicitor but you suggest this is what has happens so as the client you really should get this immediately. Keep phoning until it’s emailed.

if not, as others have said it could take much longer than this, unfortunately.

As others have said, it will potentially take some time depending on how the officer deals with it. They are now hamstrung by a national policy named “Violence against Women and Girls” which is admirable in intent, ie to reduce violence and increase prosecution, but seems to be trying to do so by removing existing safeguards around evidence, corroboration and the CPS test. There are increasing examples of men being interviewed on allegations with no other evidence except the complainant, and then retained on bail or released under investigation for months on months. I know of examples of women when evidence disclosed that have made multiple similar allegations against different men, all of which were long running investigations and put the suspects under months of worry. I know of one other when the complainant submitted an allegation of harassment against her former partner because he turned up to collect their child on a court mandated visitation. No other circumstances and it was investigated, despite there being an independent witness in the street! Took months before a Detective Inspector terminated the investigation. What an utter waste of time and shows how much the police are being dragged into being used as a tool for domestic disputes and should be focusing on gathering better evidence when there is some actual evidence of assault
So sorry, he will have months of worry unless a police supervisor takes early action to terminate it but sadly few do as they get criticised

In a similar situation DB waited 9 agonising months to be told no further action was being taken! His GF had made the same accusations against her 2 previous BFs. Thank goodness the police take these allegations seriously though.

Should mention that in our case there was also a history of malicious allegations against different men by the supposed victim. A year in all of extreme stress involved ( six months from alleged incident until police contact then another six months of investigation). So stressful.

There is a 2 year wait in our police force for examining devices at the moment

How awful, for all, re having this hang over you for such a long time. If you don't push nothing happens so I advise being proactive, and following up conversations with an email so there's a good paper trail. Chase the solicitor first then, or change solicitors.