You hypocrite! Cleared teacher blasts ex- CPS chief over rape
WHEN teacher Kato Harris was accused of raping a pupil, exCrown Prosecution Service boss Alison Levitt was said by a judge to have put ‘enormous pressure’ on police and her former employers for him to be prosecuted, despite a paucity of evidence.
Yet last month – 18 months after the teacher was cleared by a jury in just 15 minutes – Ms Levitt raised concerns over the police’s policy of automatically believing rape complainants.
And l ast night, Mr Harris branded Ms Levitt ‘completely hypocritical’ over the comments she made following the collapse of two high-profile rape cases.
Ms Levitt, former principal legal adviser to the Director of Public Prosecutions, warned on Radio 4’s Today programme that a ‘rigid mind-set’ could lead the police to miss or even disregard significant material that could clear rape-case defendants.
Mr Harris said: ‘These points, in regard to the police’s handling of rape suspects, are entirely fair. But it is beyond belief and completely hypocritical to hear Alison Levitt making them.
‘As legal adviser to the family of the pupil accusing me, she did everything she could to ensure I ended up in court on charges, even though it was clear there was no supporting evidence and no realistic chance of conviction. According to the judge, she subjected the police and the CPS to enormous pressure.
‘Where was Ms Levitt’s sense of fairness to both complainant and accused then?
‘She appears to have very sound principles about j ustice for defendants. Those principles evaporated quickly when she was paid to put them to one side. Her opinions on sex offences are worthless.’
Ms Levitt’s comments follow a judge ruling last year that the QC and ex-Scotland Yard deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers – both employed by the pupil’s parents through top law firm Mishcon de Reya – placed ‘enormous pressure’ on the CPS and police to pursue the conviction of Mr Harris.
Despite warnings from police that the case was flimsy, Ms Levitt demanded detectives contact every pupil Mr Harris had ever taught in his career and pressed officers to seize his computer.
The judge said he was ‘at a loss’ to see how the CPS decided there was ‘sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction’ and that the decision to prosecute Mr Harris was ‘an unnecessary or improper act’.
Despite t heir acti ons, t he judge added that there was nothi ng t o suggest t hose acting for the complainant’s parents acted improperly or that their actions prevented the police and CPS from conducting a proper inquiry.
Mishcon, at which Ms Levitt is a partner, declined to comment on Mr Harris’s comments.