Legal News

MP Nigel Evans ? who has been cleared of sex offence charges ? has said that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) should pay his £130,000 legal costs, and has called for a review of an alleged victim‘s right to anonymity.

The CPS has said that taking action against Mr Evans was “right” ? but the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons has told The Mail on Sunday that his trial was “a very public execution attempt”.

Mr Evans is the latest public figure to be found not guilty of alleged sex offences, including rape. He has said that the law granting anonymity to alleged victims of sex offences ? but not to those who are accused of committing sex offences ? is “unbalanced”.

Mr Evans said that during the “darkest moments” of the case, he considered committing suicide.

He now says that those “dragged through the courts through no fault of their own" and found not guilty should "get their legal fees back from the CPS budget".

Mr Evans is still MP for Ribble Valley in Lancashire, but lost his additional salary of £30,000 for being Deputy Speaker of the House ? and has also spent “every penny” of his savings in defending the case against him.

He said that allowing defendants to claim their legal costs from the CPS might “focus” the CPS in deciding whether a case was worth pursuing.

Mr Evans also said that he was shocked by the “zealotry” of the police in pursuing their investigation into allegations that he committed sex offences against a number of men. He also criticised police use of “bundling” weaker alleged offences in building a case against a defendant.

Mr Evans said he felt “cheated” that, whereas he would be recognised in public after the case, his accusers had the right to anonymity.

“We need to consider the issue of a statute of limitations ? and look at how other countries deal with this,” he said.

Mr Evans added that the current system of protecting the identity of alleged victims of sexual offences meant that a “new set of victims” was created once a defendant was cleared of the charges brought.

“This imbalance needs to addressed urgently," he told The Mail on Sunday.

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