{"id":56,"date":"2020-05-15T06:56:54","date_gmt":"2020-05-15T06:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/?p=56"},"modified":"2022-08-31T05:22:08","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T05:22:08","slug":"chronic-liar-charged-with-perverting-the-course-of-justice-over-false-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/?p=56","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Chronic liar\u2019 charged with perverting the course of justice over false allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A serial liar who made false allegations of historical abuse lead to the wrongful imprisonment of a firefighter with an unblemished record of public service has been charged with perverting the course of justice. The Daily Telegraph<\/a> has reported that Danny Daywas due to appear in court by video link over claims that he was raped at a fire station in Dorset in the Seventies when he was 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Bryant had been declared innocent and released from jail in 2016 after his accuser Danny Day was revealed to be a serial liar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The case of David Bryant and Danny Day featured in<\/strong> Guilty Until Proven Innocent: The crisis in our justice system<\/a> (Biteback 2018) and on the Justice Gap here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Prosecutors have now disclosed that Danny Day would appear at Brighton magistrates\u2019 court. In a statement, the Crown Prosecution Service said Day had been charged with two counts of \u2018doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice\u2019 between June 2013 and January 2015. He received \u00a311,000 from the Government\u2019s Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, but David Bryant is yet to receive any damages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The Government hasn\u2019t given me any money,\u2019 Bryant told the Telegraph. \u2018Nothing at all. That\u2019s crazy, isn\u2019t it? I suppose they are waiting to see what happens with the new trial.\u2019 He called the decision to charge Day \u2018another step along the way\u2019 in the restoration of his reputation as an innocent man.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u2018How on earth could a jury buy this story? It sounded like a load of cobblers\u2026\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In an extract from Guilty Until Proven Innocent (Biteback, 2018), Jon Robins recalls how a well respected member of the community ended up in prison and his life trashed as a result of the allegations of a \u2018chronic liar\u2019.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018You are free to go. I am very sorry.\u2019 With these words, Lord Justice Leveson quashed the conviction of David Bryant in the Court of Appeal in July 2016. A former fireman of seemingly impeccable character, he had been accused of abusing a boy four decades earlier. The boy\u2019s name was Danny Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Day had gone to the police in 2012. As a 14-year-old, Day had worked at the British Legion in <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christchurch, Dorchester collecting glasses where the firemen used to drink. He claimed that Bryant and a colleague, Dennis Goodman (who had since passed away), invited him back to the fire station to play darts. Day went back with the men and nothing untoward happened. But he explained that the second time he was at the station they were more \u2018hands on\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the third occasion, Day alleged that he was subjected to a horrific rape. He stated that he had been \u2018held down over a table by the pair, who then took it in turns to rape him while having sex with each other\u2019. Day was left screaming with pain. Goodman then apparently chucked some money at Day and asked if he would like to come back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Day did not report the attack at the time but claimed that he had confided in an old school friend called Chris White. Day only went to the police with his story after returning to the area in 2012 and discovering that Bryant had become a respected member of the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He pushed a note through Bryant\u2019s letterbox:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dave, its Danny Day. 35 yrs ago I used to collect the glasses in the Legion and I am the same one that you \u2026 played darts with in the fire station (remember!) At 6 o\u2019clock tonight, I am going to the police station to report what went on and at 7 to the national papers. I think it is time you and me had a chat. One way or another you will pay for what you done.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The retired firefighter told the court Danny Day had not crossed his mind since the mid-1970s. The court had received more than thirty letters from friends, family and former colleagues of the ex-fireman attesting to his good character. At the trial, a witness explained that Danny Day\u2019s description of the fire station, whilst consistent with the modern station, was different from how the building looked at the time of the attack. Nor, it was argued, would it have been possible for other firefighters to have ignored an attack that involved twenty minutes of screaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Day waived his right to anonymity to talk to the press. \u2018I don\u2019t think justice has yet been fully served in this case,\u2019 he told the Bournemouth Daily Echo<\/em> after Bryant was sentenced to six years. Bryant\u2019s upstanding position in the community had been a cunning cover for his crimes, Day argued. \u2018It is as though because he has led an unblemished life since then that somehow makes up for it,\u2019 he said. \u2018But I do still want to encourage anybody who has experienced this sort of thing to come forward. It can\u2019t be left alone.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bryant\u2019s application for an appeal was dismissed by a single judge. Day offered his thoughts to the Echo<\/em>, noting with apparent pleasure that his abuser \u2018didn\u2019t even get past the first hurdle\u2019. \u2018The first judge looked at it and dismissed it,\u2019 he said. \u2018I don\u2019t know how he got that far to be honest, he\u2019s in the place he should be in.\u2019 As a result of an appeal by Day, the sentence was increased from six to eight\u2013and-a-half years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Day was awarded \u00a312,000 from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme. He then launched a \u00a3200,000 damages claim against Bryant and Dorset County Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A chronic liar<\/em><\/strong>
That civil claim ended up on barrister Rupert Butler\u2019s desk. A clerk at his chambers, 3 Hare Court, asked Butler to draft a defence to the claim as a favour to keep sweet a firm of solicitors that was new to chambers. Butler, a commercial barrister, reluctantly agreed to take a look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I took the papers thinking: \u201cCrikey, there really is not a defence as it has been through a jury trial to the criminal standard of proof\u2019,\u201d\u2019 Butler recollected. Then the barrister began to read the medical reports attached to the particulars of the claim, including a report by a psychiatrist that Danny Day\u2019s solicitors had instructed. He could not believe what he read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giving judgment, Mr Justice Singh summarised the evidence: \u2018[Over] a period dating from 2000 to 2010, Day had to seek medical attention from his GP in relation to what can only be described as his being a chronic liar.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 17 August 2010, Danny Day was referred by his GP to mental health services with a letter noting that he had \u2018a history of lying and cheating and that it was suspected he has an underlying personality disorder\u2019. According to the medical records, Day said that his psychological problems came from several sources, one being his poor relationship with his parents. He never mentioned being raped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Day claimed he had to forsake his place on the British boxing team at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics because of the trauma the assault caused him. In the unused material from the original trial, there were two statements: one was from Nick Gregory, said to be a former England boxing coach, who wrote about Day\u2019s boxing career and his selection for the Olympic Games in 1984; another came from Day\u2019s partner and described his boxing achievements \u2013 Day had apparently won fifty-seven out of sixty-one bouts, a better record than the legendary Muhammad Ali (who also fought sixty-one bouts but only managed to win fifty-six).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst in prison, David Bryant happened to be on the same wing as Chris White, the old school friend that Danny Day claimed to have confided in. White told Bryant that he had not been friends with Day nor had he been told of any abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The barrister Rupert Butler had not done personal injury work for years until this case. He now represents the estate of the late Labour peer Lord Janner, whose life was dogged by allegations of child sexual abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As soon as he read Danny Day\u2019s claim form, the barrister was suspicious. \u2018Instinctively, I thought how on earth could a jury buy this story? It just sounded like a load of cobblers,\u2019 he told me. The medical report convinced Butler that Day was a compulsive liar. \u2018I did not understand the dynamics of the way these things work. I understand them better now. After a while, compulsive liars become very good at lying.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that an accuser is a compulsive liar does not necessarily mark them out as easy to discredit. In fact, Butler reckons that compulsive liars can make pretty formidable opponents in court. \u2018As a defendant, you have very little ammunition to challenge that person because your case is: \u201cI scarcely knew this person. It wasn\u2019t me. I wasn\u2019t there.\u201d\u2019 The narrative goes almost entirely unchallenged unless there are internal inconsistencies. \u2018But then the compulsive liar can shrug their shoulders and blame it on the passage of time,\u2019 Butler continued. \u2018Furthermore, they become plausible in their mistakes because they believe the narrative themselves. By the time they stand up and tell the courts it is in their own minds a fact.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Butler has met Danny Day. He has, if not sympathy, then pity for the man who has wreaked such damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I have said to David Bryant and his supporters, you might have a strong negative view about Danny Day, but give him credit for the fact that he is the only person I have ever heard of who went to a doctor and said: \u2018I am a liar.\u2019 Imagine how different the world would be if politicians did that. People don\u2019t tend to admit dishonesty as a medical failing; Day recognised that he had a personality disorder and wanted help. He threw himself on the mercy of doctors who did not or could not help him.\u2019
Rupert Butler<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Butler believes that Day\u2019s accusation was not motivated by a hatred of Bryant and Greenway, but was instead an attempt to win over a psychiatric nurse with whom Day was besotted. According to Butler, Day is a man \u2018who has not been loved in his life\u2019 and who \u2018goes to extreme measures in order to get attention\u2019. Butler does not believe that Day had any malicious intent against Bryant nor was he driven by the possibility of compensation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Our system of justice is incompetent at dealing with these cases. It is unfair to ask a jury to unravel the complexities of Danny Day\u2019s psychological makeup. We have got to get better at dealing with these cases and one way to do that is for the police not to believe complainants when they walk through the door.\u2019
Rupert Butler on the David Bryant<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Butler has talked to Danny Day. \u2018We both agree that he was as much let down by the police as David Bryant was,\u2019 the barrister recalled. \u2018Danny should never have been allowed to go into the witness box. Dorset Police let him down horribly, the CPS has let him down horribly and the criminal justice system has let him down horribly, and now the civil justice system was delivering the same problem. If somebody had got hold of the case in a sensible way at the start, no charges would have been brought.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A force of nature<\/strong><\/em>
That David Bryant had his conviction overturned was largely down to the perseverance of his wife Lynn who died shortly after her husband was released from prison. Lynn found that the police had been working off old plans of the fire station; however the layout as it actually was at the time of the alleged incident did not match Day\u2019s evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahead of the 2013 trial at which David Bryant was convicted, his wife also discovered that the pool table upon which Day claimed he was pinned down and raped was actually purchased years after the alleged attacks in 1992.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only six months after David Bryant\u2019s conviction was overturned, Lynn tragically died from sepsis. Her immune system had not been able to fight off an infection and sepsis had set in.. Bryant was convinced that the traumatic experience had killed her. \u2018You couldn\u2019t prove it, but it stands to reason,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex and Simon Stanley have known David and Lynn Bryant since the 1980s. Simon worked alongside David as a firefighter and was best man at Lynn and David\u2019s wedding. \u2018Nobody believed the allegations. We just couldn\u2019t make the police see that.They just didn\u2019t investigate it \u2013 they didn\u2019t bother. They didn\u2019t want to know. That was what got to Lynn the most,\u2019 Alex told me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The couple supported Lynn throughout her campaign and visited David in prison. On what happened to be Alex and Simon\u2019s twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, the four of them were at the Court of Appeal, where David\u2019s conviction was finally overturned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The anger, Alex said, \u2018ate away\u2019 at Lynn. \u2018I lost my mum in 2010. That feeling of hopelessness is what it was like,\u2019 Alex told me. \u2018You can\u2019t turn to anyone for help. Nobody wants to help. He had been found guilty and you can\u2019t do a thing about it. Normally, you can pick up a phone, write a letter, find a way out \u2013 but this was like losing somebody.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She described the phone call from barrister Rupert Butler offering pro bono help as being like \u2018a tidal wave\u2019. \u2018We thought: \u201cOh my God, at last, somebody believes in us.\u201d But how could he see it for what it was so easily, and yet the police couldn\u2019t? I don\u2019t get it.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She describes Lynn Bryant as force of nature. \u2018She would always be on at Rupert. She wouldn\u2019t let anything drop and if someone wasn\u2019t doing what they should, she would tell them. She said, \u201cI am not stopping until he\u2019s out of prison and his name is cleared.\u201d That\u2019s what we have done.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A serial liar who made false allegations of historical abuse lead to the wrongful imprisonment of a firefighter with an unblemished record of public service has been charged with perverting the course of justice. The Daily Telegraph has reported that Danny Daywas due to appear in court by video link over claims that he was raped at a fire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-england","category-false-rape-allegations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111,"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions\/111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/falseallegationshub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}