My BF has been in prison...

[Stubborn9ts]

(sorry if this is long)
My BF of 4 Months has recently told me that when he was a teenager he went to prison for several years for rape against a 19 year old! this happened whilst he was in the Army. He is now 30. He was given a life sentence not so much for the crime itself(even though very serious) but due to a inaccurate pre-sentence report by a psychiatrist, this has since been ruled inadmissible by the courts. He had a number of trials that were dismissed or stopped for various legal reasons.

He says he never did it and was pressured into pleading guilty by his legal team to avoid a life sentence, which he still got!!, He says he pleaded guilty out of fear as he was scared and wasn't able to get his solicitor to do his job so had to cut his losses and go in to damage limitation mode. He had to continue pretending to admit and show remorse for this throughout his prison sentence to get his release. It seems that his legal aid solicitor didn't do much work on the case or go through with the forensic testing he should have done. He has tried recently to get advice - unsuccessfully with a barrister to withdraw his guilty plea.
My BF has a DNA report that shows he is not the person responsible but due to the court of appeal rules this was deemed as available at the trial and can not now be used in appeals. His solicitor never told him about this report! He cannot afford any more legal challenges, financially or emotionally.

He is now on licence in the community and has to carry on as if he did it, as he fears that if he tells probation/police the truth and launches any sort of appeal they might recall him back to prison on a life sentence. His family and small circle of friends are all open and honest about this and very supportive of him. He has moved on and now runs his own successful metal business. It has taken its toll on him, he is cautious in trusting people now and it has left him slightly suspicious of people.

As a result he is automatically on Sex Offenders Register and he has to tell partners about his past, something to do with public protection it seems and something called MAPPA????
I have met his police liason officer who confirmed that i knew why he had been in prison, the police bloke tbh just asked if i knew and didnt go into much depth. Again they just accept he did it as he pleaded guilty without asking themselves if there is more to this or not. He sees probation once a month for all of ten minutes at most, they leave him alone as hes not considered a high risk.

The issue though is on the one hand this very intelligent, thoughtful, nice, quite guy has been to prison for a very serious crime, yet i actually really love him, Some of my friends think i am mad for staying with him. But at the same time he has never hurt me, treated me badly or done anything to cause me to worry. Long term i think we have a future.

What do others make of this? Has anybody else experience of a situation when they find out that a BF has a serious criminal record or been to prison for a sex offence?

I've not read the comments so unsure if this has been mentioned. But should you stay with him and ever go for a job in the future with children or vulnerable people, you will have to divulge this. It's a new law about "by association" meaning if you are in a relationship with somebody or living with somebody who has ever committed a crime, you have to state it. this could potentially stop you getting jobs.

Op, if you need an adrenaline kick, I suggest mountain biking. Much healthier and better for you than this bullshit.

It is your life. Go ahead, ruin it if you must.

Another thought strikes me. The OP mentions that he BF was held on remand before trial.

I woud say that if he was not given bail, the courts and police must've considered him to either be dangerous to the public, or likely to flee. I wonder which it was

I don't think the OP is a troll. I work with too many DV victims who will believe anything their shitbag abusers tell them and will convince themselves of anything to know that this is very commonplace. OP is also in honeymoon period of relationship where she wants to believe anything, however implausible, to cement their pair bond

And 20 months on remand at that.

In fact even less makes sense now

Time served on remand is counted at double off the sentence. So if your offender serves 6 months on remand, they get 1 year taken off their prison term. This applies to lifers and comes off their tariff. Therefore a lifer with a 7 year tariff who did one year on remand would be able to apply for parole after 5 years.

With a 58 month tariff and 40 months credit for time served, OPs boyfriend would have been eligible to apply for parole after serving 18 months. If he was innocent, causing no trouble and a model, remorseful prisoner, he would have more than likely been released on an extended licence. The fact that he wasn't points to one of two options:

1. he is lying
2. he was not safe for release

The only way you can get answers to speak to his MAPPA officer that you told you knew about everything. You have a right to ask under "Sarah's Law" and they have a duty to disclose within reason.

Stardust, sorry no, I was referring to a hypothetical future daughter, if op remains as deluded as she currently is and has kids with this man.

Op, just leave - you've had so many people point out the massive inconsistencies here - being held on remand for that long, MAPPA involvement etc... This won't end well.

Where are you OP? I really do hope you have disappeared due to having a think about everything PP's have said. I hope it's not because you have decided everyone is in the wrong and you don't want to read the responses.

Oh do me a favour.

'...and something called MAPPA??'

Really? You've been questioning this inside out but haven't googled MAPPA?

Aye right.

Reported.

Another thing you might consider here.

You've been together 4 months. A honeymoon period, when the sex is great and plentiful and the hormones are racing.

In 6 months or so, you get a headache, or are tired, or worst case: pregnant and say no to sex. What then? What happens when he does to you what he did to his previous victim?

Rape tends to be a repeat offence, the one he went to prison for is unlikely to have been his first rape and given the severity of the offence, I doubt wholeheartedly it will be his last.

I agree with Truffle, speak to his MAPPA officer and get the real story, not this cock and bull tissue of lies and bullshit your rapist boyfriend is feeding you. Even if it doesn't deter you, it will help you plan for your inevitable future.

It is true to say that you can't normally appeal on the basis of new evidence unless it really is new, i.e. it's evidence that wasn't available before the hearing and couldn't reasonably have been found. However, if the solicitors were prepared to put their hands up and admit to a horrendous oversight with the DNA evidence (bearing in mind that if his account is correct they would have little choice) I would have thought that the courts would decide to exercise discretion on his side - it's not in anyone's interests to have a wrongful conviction on the books and to leave the real perpetrator to go free.

What puzzles me about the DNA evidence, however, is that the prosecution simply must have got their own DNA evidence so I query whether this is a conclusive as it seems.

I wouldn't even go there.

If you can't see the wood for the trees I hope he behaves in a way towards you that switches your lightbulb on.

( obviously in a way that you don't get hurt)

Then you run.

You've said that Probation don't consider him to be a risk. If he is subject to MAPPA procedures then they absolutely do consider him to be a risk, and they probably consider him to be at least a high risk of serious harm. They don't hold MAPPA meetings for fun.

You need to google him and find out everything you can that was reported about the rape. You can also contact the police and ask for a disclosure under "Sarah's Law". You really need to do this.

Why do you value yourself so little to even take the risk that he might be guilty and might do this again.

Rape conviction aside, he doesn't sound like he's that good a catch.

Don't risk it.

This reminds me of my friends ex husband. Weeks after they got together he revealed that his previous wife had cited domestic violence in divorce proceedings. He said he didn't dispute it because he didn't want to delay divorce proceedings. I told my friend that no man would admit to DV if it wasn't true but she chose to believe him. You can guess the rest...

She is now divorced from him too but the mental and physical scars will last a lifetime.

'I really love him'. You've been with him for four months, you're in love with someone you don't know properly.

It's easy to 'love' someone when you don't know them properly. You base it on not knowing anything bad about them, which of course you don't, yet.

You have to know someone properly in order to know they are a good person with enough in common with you to make a go of it. For a year or more at least.

You like him but you are in the probation period at the moment. Don't sell yourself short. There doesn't have to be a hurry does there? Get to know him better and then commit if you still want to.

I don't know anything about the prison/rape thing so won't comment on that.

I could be completely off the mark here, but what if the first two trials were for completely different things, and not abandoned at all? Is it possible that these resulted in lesser sentences, and then (in the light of previous convictions) the life sentence was handed down after the third one?

At the very least it would explain the difference in the pleas ...

Sorry SophieJenkins but I that is really scary advice - stay with a convicted violent rapist for a bit longer to see if they turn out to be a psychopath or not.

No OP - cut your losses and ditch him sharpish

What I make of it is that something doesn't add up. Lawyers don't advise their clients to plead guilty if they aren't - they often advise them to plead not guilty when they are! That on top of the twenty months on remand suggest to me that he's dangerous even if he isn't a rapist.

I don't think it's unreasonable to be in love with someone after four months, as I was engaged to now-DH after six weeks and only as many dates. That said, four months is, what, late Feb/early March and that feels very recent.

Advice from pps to apply for information under Sarah's Law sounds very sensible and no reasonable man could object to your doing so (like having STI checks with a new partner).

Best case, it was all a horrendous fit-up or error and he was terribly badly advised and circumstances conspired against him and he's a great guy and not a rapist and OP is quite safe. He still has a criminal record and is on the sex offenders register. That will seriously restrict his career prospects and any family he has with OP will be under SS supervision if indeed they're allowed to stay with their parents.

Worst case, he's an unrepentant violent rapist.

I don't think either life is one I'd want. Plenty of lovely men around without complicated history.

like kungfu says above, you don't get guilty pleas with rape, because the odds of proving rape beyond reasonable doubt (10% conviction rate) are stacked quite well in the defendant's favour. It's worth going the full hog to run those odds.
The situation in which a solicitor would advise pleading guilty is when ALL the evidence (not just the favourable parts which you have been told about) is insurmountable.

Sorry what? I didn't say that at all. I said she should get to know him better before committing.

How on earth is that dangerous advice?

You can get to know someone without being in a relationship with them. It's certainly a better option than what she has in mind.

erm, because there is certain risk associated with befriending and romancing violent ex convicts perhaps?

Unless she wants to risk being raped/beaten or stabbed in the process.

There are more holes in this tale than in a trawlerman's fishing net. For example, (haven't yet read the whole thread so apologies if someone else has already made these points):

I would guess the reason why the DNA evidence was not used was because it proved nothing. Maybe DNA -from semen say - was found at the scene, perhaps on clothing, or tissues in a bin - and it was tested and it wasn't this guy's - so what? It could have belonged to the victim's partner. Proves nothing. If the sample was an intimate swab and showed a mix of DNA from a number of men - again, proves nothing. There are a number of reasons why that might be the case.

Similarly, partial fingerprint on knife , not his - so what? he was very probably wearing gloves. Proves nothing.

Not only is this man a self-confessed ( in order to get the usual third off his sentence for an early guilty plea) dangerous rapist, he is deluded and highly manipulative. No barrister would recommend a client plead guilty to rape unless the evidence against them was substantial. Leave. I can't believe anyone would put themselves in this position.

And whilst it's true that rape is a notoriously difficult crime to prosecute ( often because it's word on word) rape conviction rates ( of those cases that are charged) - was 56.9% last year. Which isn't ideal, but it's better than 10% .

yes I think the 90/10 comes from the vast number of cases that the CPS don't prosecute because of the difficulties in securing conviction. To get through all those hoops, no bail, secure a conviction followed by a life sentence? either the unluckiest man in the system, or guilty of aggravated rape. Occam's razor, like someone wise said above.