Minister meets police to discuss new guidelines for investigating abuse cases

Home office minister John Denham was due to meet the Association
of Chief Police Officers on Tuesday to discuss guidelines aimed at
ending miscarriages of justice in child abuse investigations.

The guidelines, compiled by child protection spokesperson for
ACPO Terry Grange, is aimed at preventing errors that have been
made in recent high profile cases.

Grange said some of the inquiries into abuse at care homes could
have made mistakes, and some of those who had been jailed could
have been victims of miscarriages of justice.

He is also heading up a new UK-wide research team to improve
police investigation of child abuse cases.

The House of Commons select committee on home affairs has also
launched an inquiry into how such cases have been handled in the
past.

The committee’s spokesperson Chris Mullin said: “It has
been suggested that a whole new genre of miscarriages of justice
has arisen from the over enthusiastic pursuit of allegations about
the abuse of children in institutions many years ago.”