Dad wrongly jailed for rape is free

A loving husband and father wrongly convicted twice of raping a teenage girl is free at last.

Family, friends and more than 250 supporters never doubted David Luxford's innocence. But despite being tried twice, it took private investigators and £100,000 to secure his release. His story, told exclusively to News Shopper, is a shocking indictment of our legal system and how we treat those accused of rape.

With his accuser's allegations coming 12 years after the first offence was supposed to have taken place, and without a shred of evidence, the case rested on his word against hers.

But new evidence uncovered by investigators legalappeal.co.uk showed he could never have raped the girl - who, despite her lies and the fact we know who she is, enjoys lifelong anonymity.

I just want to thank everyone who stood by me

Speaking after being freed from 34 months and five days in prison, Mr Luxford, said: “I just want to thank everyone who stood by me.”

At his lowest ebb after being convicted a second time in November 2001, though not quite suicidal, the 36-year-old was ‘close to giving up’.

Without the determination and love of his wife, Greer, and close friend Colin Richardson, he says he “would not be here today”.

“I couldn't see any light at the end of the tunnel. If it hadn't been for my supporters, I could easily have gone a different way.”

But his torment is now over.

Mrs Luxford 50, who took out a crippling loan and organised dozens of sponsored events to fund the investigation, said: “On our first night together again, I had to keep pinching him to make sure he was really there.”

“The thing I missed most was the banter. When he was away, I tried to keep everything normal but I did not really want to because David was not there. I used to have the most terrible nightmares that when he came out I wouldn't be around. Really horrible dreams where I would wake up crying.”

Now the nightmares have stopped and the couple are planning for the future.

In May, Mr Luxford will see his daughter play cricket for Kent for the first time in his life.

“She always said she would play for England one day and with the determination she has shown in the last three years, I believe she can,” he said with pride.

A victim of a lie let down by law

AT 3.24pm on November 5, more than 60 supporters in court wept with joy when David Luxford's conviction was quashed.

Dismissing the possibility of a third trial, the three appeal judges unleashed a huge outpouring of emotion from the packed public gallery.

Mr Luxford's nightmare, which ended when he ran into his wife's arms after being freed, had begun with one woman's allegations he raped her over several years from the age of 13.

Her lies nearly destroyed his life and those of his family and friends, and his case shows how cheaply the law values men in his position.

All it took for Mr Luxford to be arrested and charged was a statement from a 25-year-old woman with an axe to grind.

We are forbidden from naming her but News Shopper believes it knows why the claims were made.

How the nightmare began and ended

February 2000 Police first make contact by pushing a note through his door. Surrenders himself to station, arrested and charged two weeks later.

July 2000 First trial on specimen charges of two counts of rape and one of indecent assault. Found guilty.

September 2000 Sentenced to seven years for each rape charge and four years for indecent assault to run concurrently.

May 2001 Conviction quashed on appeal and released on bail.

November 2001 ‘Carbon copy’ retrial and found guilty a second time and jailed again.

May 2002 Supporters contact help group legalapeal.co.uk

July 2003 Given unconditional grounds for leave to appeal.

November 2003 Conviction quashed with possibility of retrial dismissed. A free man.

It could happen to someone else

In his first interview since tasting freedom, Mr Luxford said he is looking forward to spending his first Christmas in four years with his wife, Greer, and their daughter.

“I don't care what we do, or where we go as long as we are together”, he said wiping away a tear.

But his calm exterior belies anger and frustration with the system which put him away, an anger voiced more by his wife who has stood by him all along.

Mrs Luxford said: “This sort of thing has got to stop. Somebody has got to be taken to task. We are not just going to draw a line under this. It could happen to someone else.”

She refers to potential miscarriages of justice in similar circumstances but, more importantly, to her husband's accuser, who could yet face prosecution for making false allegations.

But as well as being a victim of her lies, Mr Luxford is a victim of British justice.

First convicted in July 2000, he fought an appeal and won but faced a retrial and lost.

Spending close to three years in four different prisons, he received more than 2,000 letters from supporters which kept him sane among murderers, rapists and paedophiles.

Alone, afraid in jail

When the jury convicted him a second time, David Luxford could ‘hardly stand up’. The prospect of returning to Belmarsh prison, where he had previously had to say he was in for fraud to stay safe, filled him with dread.

Tipped off he was going to be lynched, he asked to be put on the ‘vulnerable persons’ wing, which houses sex offenders as well as elderly and infirm prisoners.

Unsurprisingly, Mr Luxford never settled in prison, despite being trained by Bromley and Orpington Samaritans to act as a “listener” - a sympathetic ear for other inmates to offload their troubles.

“You don't know what's happening from one day to the next. You have to be so careful,” he said. “It's boring and depressing. I read a lot and consoled myself with the letters I was receiving. I just lived for the phone calls and visits. I can't describe how distraught I used to get seeing Greer and my daughter leave after a visit.”

The couple's relationship has been tested to the limit but Mrs Luxford sums up her feelings: “Our love for each other has deepened and that is something no-one can take away from us.”

When I took up the fight

After fielding scores of complaints about News Shopper's coverage of Mr Luxford's court cases, Deputy Editor JEAN MAY decided to meet with the family to discuss the alleged rape. What she was told not only changed her mind but made her determined to fight for justice.

It was in July 2000 the name Luxford first came to my attention, and in a big way. News Shopper had published a straightforward court report resulting in a conviction for rape. Immediately, the newsroom was bombarded by dozens of phone calls from relatives, friends and colleagues of the accused.

The callers, including David Luxford's wife, were extremely angry about the report and called for us to retract the story claiming he was innocent. Of course, this wasn't possible as the report was accurate and simply a summary of the trial and the verdict. For weeks the calls kept coming.

They proved to be a real nuisance for the newsdesk but I personally remained uninvolved. Eventually, the calls stopped and I forgot about the Luxfords.

Unknown to us at News Shopper, in May 2001, David Luxford had his conviction quashed and was sent for retrial.

A second conviction was handed down and again the court case appeared in News Shopper, though at the time we hadn't connected this case with the story in July 2000.

Again, the newsroom was bombarded with telephone calls and for the first time I became involved with Greer Luxford. In some ways I felt sorry for what I was convinced was a naive ‘woman in love’ deceived by her younger second husband. My opinion was that two juries could not be wrong. I was uninterested in what she had to say. But this was a woman who does not give up easily.

One morning, shortly after the second conviction, I received a very long letter from Greer that I felt obliged to treat seriously given the length of time it had obviously taken her to write. Her determination and obvious intelligence made me read it twice. I began to have the slightest flickering of doubt about the verdict and arranged to visit her.

She was well prepared and I could not help but be impressed by the campaign she had waged with the help of a huge number of supporters to free her husband.

She gave me her precious copy of the first trial transcript - which had cost her £800 - to read at home. By the time I finished it at 2am, I was convinced David Luxford had suffered two miscarriages of justice.

The judge had obviously been directing the first jury to acquit this man. But these were the days of the paedophilia witch-hunt following the murder of Sarah Payne. Could this have had something to do with this strange verdict?

Greer arranged a precious visitor's pass for me to see David in Elmley Jail, on the Isle of Sheppey, and I met a lovely, sensitive man. I wanted to help this couple.

I precised the whole story and wrote to Michael Mansfield QC, the famous barrister who takes on miscarriages of justice. I also started to research other avenues of ways to help.

It was at this time Greer decided to take drastic action and hired the firm of private detectives who immediately imposed strict rules on who the family could talk to. My involvement came to an end though Greer kept in touch with me frequently and I thought about them often.

I was on tenterhooks the day of the appeal and waited two long days to hear the wonderful news David was free. But then, knowing Greer's determination, he was always going to win justice in the end.

A team of hope

Not until a family friend contacted legalappeal.co.uk did any kind of investigation take place.

The private firm, which specialises in miscarriages of justice and false allegations, spent four months gathering evidence.

The team took statements from Mr Luxford's friends and Royal Mail bosses to test computer models recreating the scene of the alleged offences based on the accuser's statements. They established what she had claimed could never have happened.

The main investigator who worked on the case said: “To say Dave was taken to the lowest depths is an understatement. He had his life taken away.”

This was a catalogue of errors and there are serious lessons to be learned.

“I'm so glad we won this for him. It couldn't have happened to a nicer man.”

Mr Luxford will be entitled to a substantial amount of compensation and the firm is working on this as well as taking advice on seeking to prosecute his accuser.

The investigator recognises, however, there should be no need for private firms such as his to exist.

“Is it right that the police should allow things like this to go ahead?” he asks. “These false allegations have got to stop.”

Richard Simcox
News Shopper

legalappeal.co.uk specialises in miscarriages of justice and false allegations.
Contact: Stephen Cooper
Email: info@legalappeal.co.uk
Web: www.legalappeal.co.uk

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