welcome to SAFARI. The name SAFARI stands for "Supporting All Falsely Accused with Reference Information" and, as the name suggests, we provide powerful and positive information that is likely to be of use to those who are in a position to make necessary changes in our investigative and judicial systems, those who have been affected by false accusations, including the family & friends of victims, and those who have suffered from being pressurised into making false accusations.

There may be little you can do about a problem by yourself, but, by working together, we can make and are making a difference. We collect, research, collate and share information on this subject. SAFARI shares news of successes so that all can benefit from them. We also share information which shows when and how the day to day running of the Legal System has failed the cause of justice, and we take the matter up at Parliamentary level with a view to achieving necessary changes.

You can join SAFARI or update your details if you are already a member here.

We are also very interested in hearing from people who were persuaded to make false allegations of abuse - please join us too. There is little recognition, as yet, of the immense and ongoing psychological damage that is done to people persuaded, bribed, blackmailed, pressurised, coaxed or coerced into making false allegations.

It has been recognised since the 1980's that police interrogations, whether the suspect is innocent or guilty, can cause a range of symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. These include flashbacks, nightmares and a number of other manifestations of disturbance. It has also long been recognised that "There is ample evidence that false confessions occur but their frequency is unknown. It is generally accepted that children and the mentally handicapped are particularly likely to produce unreliable testimony." People suffering from stress during pressure or questioning can, and do, make false admissions of guilt.

"I believe false confessions today are less of a problem than false allegations," says Gudjonsson. "There is accumulating research evidence that it is much easier for people to make up false allegations, even serious allegations, than the courts realise.

"People are often too eager to help the police. They may have an over-extended imagination. If the police ask all the people from a certain care home, 'Were you abused?' Even that may be sufficient for people to think, 'Maybe it happened to me then, even though I don't remember it. I think I was abused. Yes, I must have been abused.' "

In those who claim to have been abused, these same type of psychological symptoms (PTSD, etc.) are often attributed by 'experts' (including Social Workers, Therapists and Renowned Child Psychologists) to 'after-effects of the abuse.' Experts are not immune from being 'in denial'! And some experts, sadly, have a predisposition to work from a presumption of guilt.

In many ways, however, when dealing with people having made false allegations under duress, the experts are right in diagnosing these symptoms as indicative of abuse - but the abuse is NOT that which was falsely admitted to - it was the emotional and psychological abuse of being persuaded to make false admissions of having been abused. (Associated, of course, with guilt feelings and embarrassment.) This particular form of abuse is, for the most part, not accepted by professionals as occurring at all, and so sufferers are denied the help and counselling that they need.

There are strong parallels between the Police interrogation 'admissions' and the generation of false allegations against others. In both cases the procedure is carried out by a person in 'a position of influence and authority,' be it a police officer, a social worker, or a parental or other senior family figure. In a family scenario the situation is further compounded by family loyalties, love for the 'authority figure', and fear of getting that persuader into trouble, as well as the fear of getting oneself into trouble, by admitting what actually happened. All these things will make the psychological symptoms worse for the false admitter of 'being abused' than for the false admitter of a crime.

What we do for you as a member:

• Make available all the latest and all previous issues of SAFARI publications online.
• Read your letters and emails to us and, if doing so will be beneficial to a significant number of our readers, research and publish details of issues you raise, in a future newsletter.
• Keep your identity secret unless we feel that no harm could possibly be caused by revealing it, and either
  • you ask us to publish it, or
  • it's in the public domain (.i.e. the story has already been published in the news.)
  (In most cases, anonymity is the best policy - even if you beg us to publish your name, we probably won't!)

• Send you copies of the three most recent SAFARI newsletters when you join.
• Send you copies of all future SAFARI newsletters until such time as you are removed from our mailing list.

In return, we ask that you do as much of the following as you are able:

• Keep us informed of your current address / email address so that we do not lose contact with you.
• Tell us (and supply details) whenever you achieve some level of success in your case (such as winning an appeal, achieving Parole, finding a solicitor who achieves positive results, etc.)
• Make donations if and when you can (we quite understand that many of you are not in a position to do this).
• Tell others about SAFARI (you could pass out or eMail copies of the newsletters [some readers already issue 50+ copies every month] or suggest to others that they join SAFARI.)
• Send us copies of any letters you receive from officials (i.e. MPs, prison staff, Probation, etc.) which either (a) contain information you feel would be useful to other readers or (b) highlight an issue which you believe needs to be addressed by a higher authority in an attempt to achieve changes in Law or procedures.

Please note that we receive a great deal of mail each week and do not have the time or resources to reply to individual letters or to carry out any tasks you ask us to do in relation to your own case (ask your solicitor to help you here). You can rest assured that everything we receive is read but please understand if we cannot reply.

SAFARI is a non-profit-making organisation reliant solely on voluntary donations. To make regular donations to the group, you can set up a Standing Order with your bank. Simply ask them to credit whatever sum you decide, at any interval you decide, to account name: "SAFARI", Sort Code: 30-92-02, account Number: 2702360. (Please give your name as the 'reference' so we know where the money is coming from!) Alternatively, you can make one-off or irregular payments by setting up a 'bill payment' to the same account by telephone banking or Internet banking, or just click on the button below to make a donation online.

A Matter of Principle

ALL people have a right to be protected from false accusations (and, in some cases, wrongful convictions and imprisonment). THIS MEANS ALL. It is a matter of principle. We don't support the theory that "everyone is equal but some people are more equal than others."

In some cases, people have committed a crime but then find themselves being falsely accused of far worse crimes as a result. For example, if someone is caught with enough cannabis for personal consumption, and accused of that, that is fair enough; but it is WHOLLY UNACCEPTABLE for them then to have two kilos of cocaine or heroin planted on them and subsequently be convicted of dealing in it. If you have stolen £50 of stationery from the office stores, it is UTTERLY WRONG for you then to be framed for embezzling £100,000 from the company's pension fund. This principle must apply equally across the board - or else we would be condoning massive injustices by taking it upon ourselves to "play God".

We support the cause of ALL falsely accused people - whether they are accused of anything from petty theft to murder. They don't have to have been convicted - false accusations even without any criminal procedures can totally ruin lives. In this campaign - especially when dealing with wilfully evil conspiracies against the innocent, it is simply not good enough to fight a spineless "defensive battle". Making a false allegation - or persuading a vulnerable person to make a false allegation - and backing it up in court is a very serious criminal offence; it's called "Perverting the Course of Justice."

Where a child is persuaded to make false allegations, this will cause 'Significant Harm' to that child, and that is the definition of the offence of 'Cruelty to Children'. It is a particularly vicious and pernicious form of child abuse, which goes for the most part wholly unrecognised, and the manipulative abusers themselves, of course, are doing this for their own ends - revenge, petty spite, greed, or whatever. They do not care a "tinker's cuss" for the devastating effects on the people they manipulate. There's also the point that someone doing this is ALSO "corrupting a minor", as they are persuading a child to commit a criminal offence on their behalf.

It is time to start biting back - and all right-minded people should agree that offenders such as these MUST be brought to justice, and that the scale of these unresolved (and, for the most part, uninvestigated) crimes should be brought to the attention of the public. We're sure the great British public doesn't want this type of serious offender to get off scot-free.

One final and very important point: SAFARI exists to support those who have had false accusations made against them, and others affected by this issue. One thing we would ask of everyone who is falsely accused, for their own good and the integrity of the group, is to ADMIT what you DID do (if anything), make use of any course or programme for which you are genuinely eligible, and be resolute in maintaining your innocence of anything you did NOT do.

Above all, be honourable in all your dealings.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

(Edmund Burke)