Innocent Until Proven Guilty

A fundamental principle of the British legal system is “innocent until proven guilty”. It doesn’t always seem obvious though when you read about the legal process through the lens of the press.

I was prompted to start pondering this when the case involving Dave Lee Travis was in the news last week. Since then, we have seen Ken Roach unanimously cleared of all the charges against him. No smoke without fire? Or perhaps we should be glad that innocence has been proven, giving some hope for those falsely accused of other crimes?

I do wonder what the implication is for those who made the accusations? If Roach is innocent, does that mean they are guilty of perjury? As Roach is reported as saying, nobody wins unequivocally in a case like this. Perhaps what we need is a major shake up of the press to improve their standards. Oh, wait, didn’t we have one of those?