theForum

Indecent image offence - timeline to police interview, and no contact?


https://forum.unlock.org.uk/Topic32912.aspx

By switchr - 1 Aug 22 4:59 PM

Hi all.

I am getting frustrated that I've had no formal contact from the police in a year and a half, and no messages from the Detective Constable in charge of my case in five months

I had "The Knock" on 28 November 2020 - the police did a basic scan of all my electronic devices and found no CSAM images, but bagged and took everything away for a deep forensic. I was not arrested and was not interviewed, and was in essence told to be quiet and wait. They said at the time I'd likely be called in for an interview under caution "in the next six months".
My Solicitor instructed the DC on 11 January 2021.
I emailed the DC on 2 February 2021 for an update, and was told there were no updates.
I emailed the DC on 11 March 2021 for an update, and was told there were no updates.
I emailed the DC on 26 April 2021 for an update, and was told there were no updates.
I received a phonecall from the DC on 28 September 2021 and was told I would be called for an interview "in the next two weeks" and to get ready.
I emailed the DC on 2 November 2021 for an update, and received no reply.
I emailed the DC on 9 December 2021 for an update, and received no reply.
I emailed the DC on 17 December 2021 for an update, and received no reply.
I emailed the DC on 28 January 2022 for an update, and received no reply.
I emailed the DC on 28 February 2022 for an update, and was told there were no updates.
I emailed the DC on 04 June 2022 for an update, and received no reply.
I emailed the DC on 18 July 2022 for an update, and received no reply.

  1. Does this lack of contact ring true for anyone else?! Is this normal? 
  2. Should I just keep waiting, or keep on emailing the DC for an update?
  3. Will there be any consequences on my sentence for the long wait?
The pro about the long wait is that I've attended a lot of therapy targeted towards sex offenders and feel in a much better place mentally and behaviourally. The cons about the long wait is that I've tried to move my life forward in the meantime and I think I'll get really knocked back when I finally do get charged. I also have basically forgotten the details of my offending behaviour and am pretty worried I won't be able to answer the questions in the interview.

If anyone has any thoughts that would be useful.
By punter99 - 7 Aug 22 2:08 PM

switchr - 7 Aug 22 12:17 PM
Craniumbre - 5 Aug 22 8:12 PM
From what I’ve been reading, even a voluntary interview doesn’t speed things up. :/. Seems to also depends on which region you are in the country. Good that all your social media have been deleted. Deleted all of mine but my photos are still googleable. How you’ve been coping and getting on with life since the knock?

Yeah, I mean- it's been a struggle but I think that's true for everyone.

Everyone on the therapy groups I've been on has at least one suicide attempt under their belt. Ironically the fact the suicide hotline didn't pick up in my case was so funny, at the time, that it broke the spell.

I've lost all my friends, as unfortunately my partner (who is still with me, but it was a huge struggle at the start especially as they took all of his devices too) told people. That's pretty isolating.

In the meantime I've mostly focused on addressing why I offended and building a toolkit to ensure it does not happen again. 

As somebody said to me recently; if your friends don't stand by you, when something like this happens, then they were never really your friends at all.