The claimant complained that in instituting and continuing a patently hopeless prosecution for rape, based only on the evidence of a woman who had made repeated false allegations of rape, the police had acted in breach of a duty of care to him.
Held: The claimant’s appeal against the striking out of his claim failed. Sir Ralph Gibson: ‘In my judgment, for similar reasons [to those given in Elguzouli-Daf], the interests of the whole community are better served by not imposing a duty of care upon the police officers in their decisions whether or not to place sufficient reliance upon the account of a complainant to justify the making of a charge against an accused.’
Judges:
Sir Ralph Gibson
Citations:
Unreported, 31 January 1995
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Brooks v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis and others HL 21-Apr-2005
The claimant was with Stephen Lawrence when they were both attacked and Mr Lawrence killed. He claimed damages for the negligent way the police had dealt with his case, and particularly said that they had failed to assess him as a victim of crime, . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Police, Negligence
Updated: 12 December 2022; Ref: scu.225892
