Roy Harper – Case reported closed! Hung Jury? Retrial? Dropped?

Posted on by Opher

Roy has been found not guilty on the indecency charge. There is now a report that the case is closed and there are legal negotiations.

All very mysterious. I suspect a hung jury and they are considering what to do.

Either it is not in the public interest to pursue further

Or a pleas bargain for a lesser crime and lenient punishment

Or a retrial.

All conjecture at this point. We will know more soon. Let’s hope for the best.

http://www.westmidlandsnews.org.uk/news/jury-find-folk-singer-not-guilty-of-indecent-assault-charge

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/folk-rocker-roy-harper-cleared-of-indecently-assaulting16-year-old-girl.1423154696?utm_source=www.heraldscotland.com&utm_medium=RSS%20Feed&utm_campaign=Home%20News&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

42 thoughts on “Roy Harper – Case reported closed! Hung Jury? Retrial? Dropped?”

  1. Enough is enough. CPS need to drop this monumental farce that has decimated our friend and inspiration. How long must one man suffer in the name of so called justice?

    1. Hopefully that is the view they will come to. I just wish they had thrown it out at the beginning. A retrial is worse than the idea of purgatory!!
      What more punishment do they want to inflict?

  4. If the jury can’t reach a majority verdict(s) then the prosecution can ask for a re-trial but the application can be opposed by the defence (which clearly they will). It’s then up to the judge to decide. It may be that the jury are unable to decide on one or more charges and the respective lawyers are discussing whether those charges which have not been determined can be dismissed or remain on file (effectively the same outcome). The prosecution may be asking him to plead to a lesser charge in return for dropping the main charges in which case the defence will be seeking an indication from the judge of what penalty would be imposed on a guilty plea before accepting the offer. A re-trial would be akin to a custodial sentence.

  5. https://twitter.com/bbchw

    “NEWS: The singer-songwriter Roy Harper has been cleared of indecently assaulting an 11 year old girl in #Herefordshire in the mid 1970s.”

    Oh my, I hope I’m not seeing things, or that this is some kind of hoax. Can’t see anything else anywhere yet….

      1. I just hope that covers all 7 charges, as well. If it does, there will be tears and alcohol in my house tonight!!

  7. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-31170479

    Not Guilty then on 2 charges, jury couldn’t reach a verdict on the other charges:

    “The jury at Worcester Crown Court was discharged after failing to reach verdicts on five other sexual abuse charges related to the same child.

    Prosecutors have asked for two weeks to consider whether to seek a re-trial.”

    Bugger, two more weeks.

  8. My apologies for reposting this from comments in your diary of a couple of days ago:

    Long-time American fan of Roy here. For me, one of the saddest things about this case is that Mr. Harper can’t win no matter what happens from here on out. Even if the prosecution decides not to retry him on the remaining charges, or if he is acquitted of those offenses, his name and reputation are likely to be forever ruined.

    I can also see the other side of the coin, and believe that accusations of sexual abuse/assault should always be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated, and that those found guilty should be punished harshly. But it bothers me a lot that the old adage of “innocent until proven guilty” no longer seems to apply to people accused of committing sex crimes. The media (and public opinion) no longer seem to give anyone the benefit of the doubt anymore.

    In addition, I find it extremely troubling that much of the British press coverage about Roy’s case has focused on what his accuser claims happened 30 or more years ago, and her apparently hazy memories of that time. If there is any concrete evidence beyond her recollections of events that occurred (or not) back in the 1970s, I have yet to hear or read of it. Mr. Harper has been twisting in the wind, under the cloud of suspicion, for more than a year now. And recently I saw where his defence attorney said he couldn’t take the witness stand to answer questions because he is so stressed and in such ill health that he has the brain of a 90-year-old man. I can’t even imagine the pressure that he and Tracey must be under, but hope they can find some relief soon.

    Thanks for this blog. It’s been very interesting and rewarding to see how many other folks share my concern and sympathy for this man … and for a system of justice we all want to see work for the sake of both innocent defendants and real victims.

  9. Why the certainty that he is innocent? Look at the history of the man. His old was Jacquie when he first got involved with her? He deliberately broke rules to prove he could. He pushed the limits out if contempt for the norm. He was obsessed with innocence in the young female. I suggest to you that he may well be guilty and that you are blinded to this possibility by your need for him not to be guilty. Sorry to play devils advocate.

      1. From what I know of the man, unfortunately, underage girls do (or, more accurately…did) figure. Time will tell.

  10. On Friday it will be two weeks since Roy was cleared is there any news about what the CPS intend to do next if anything,they were given 2 weeks to seek a retrial concerning the charges the jury could not agree a verdict on…..any news any info please

  12. What’s startling about this case is that there is absolutely no contemporary evidence, from the time the alleged offences are supposed to have taken place, that any crime was in fact comitted at all. It would be different if, at the time, the woman involved had reported something to the police, her friends, her parents, her school, the social services, written something down in a diary, wrote a letter to Harper complaining about his behaviour… or something concrete that linked her allegations with the past and functioned as a form of ‘evidence’ one could scrutinize today. The gap of decades between the alleged offences and the submition of a complaint, should, at the very least, make one extremely cautious about this affair and giving credence to such old memories about events in one’s past. How accurately do any of us remember sexual encounters from decades ago? There’s also the question of what exactly triggered the current accusations. Was it seeing Harper emerging from the past into the limelight once more and then comparing one’s current circumstances with the person one was forty years ago and re-imagining one’s life again. Once one mingled with famous rock stars, but where is one now?

    1. Yes I quite agree. Memory is constantly reformed and changed. One always looks at the road not taken and wonders if only…
      Who knows?

      1. Part of the problem as I see it is that there is ongoing speculation on both sides. Those supporting Roy speculate that the accuser is lying or confused, those questioning the veracity if Roy’s position speculate that he is unquestionably, scrupulously honest. I suggest that the real truth may well be hidden somewhere between these two polarized views. Where there is smoke there may be fire vs. if you throw enough mud at someone some of it is sure to stick. It’s a no- win situation for Mr Harper, unfortunate if he is innocent (isn’t that the legal presumption?). If he is not innocent (and only two people on this godless earth know the truth in this regard) then it’s like a karmic reckoning. Personally I do not and cannot assume to know either way so I am trying to remain clinically objective. When will we learn the outcome?

      2. Regardless of anything – guilty or not guilty – the length of time involved in releasing information and dealing with a case is disgusting.

      1. Why has there been no further news? is there a retrial? Has everything been swept under the carpet? How bizarre this is….not a single word anywhere (none that I can find). Is Roy even alive? The whole thing seems to have ghosted past us…. Can anyone shed any light on the situation or has everyone simply given up?

  15. There is a process going on in the background. It will take its course. At present it is best to keep things low profile.

  16. I hope the ‘process going on in the background’ isn’t one of these ghastly plea-bargain things, where, one agrees to confess to a crime in order to have the other, more serious charges dropped, so everyone is ‘happy’ though I suspect it’s a tempting way out of a dreadful situation.

    Here’s a link to an ‘interesting’ discussion about rockstars and groupies. What strikes me about it, is the gap, or chasm, between women/girls who were actually there and the ones who weren’t but have extremely strong views about what happened, a clash between then and now, and theory and practice, perhaps?

    http://bitchtopia.com/2014/02/12/look-away-rockstars-and-their-underage-prey/

    Coincedentally, I was talking to a friend of mine who is both a historian and an antropologist, we were chatting about democracy in Athens two thousand years ago, which was strictly for men, (only about 10% of the population of Athens had the right to vote, which some might consider a strange kind of democracy, though after the last election in the UK where a party that receives a third of the votes is magically transformed into a government with a majority over all the other parties, perhaps one shouldn’t criticize Athen’s version of democracy!) she mentioned in passing that girls became women and left childhood behind, and were usually married as soon as they began to menstruate and were capable of having children. This, she pointed out, was the norm in most societies for most of human history. Childhood, is an interesting concept, which has evolved and changed over time, and may well change again. Sex, of course, is even more of an interesting concept, bursting with cultural significance and dangers.

    1. Thanks for that intriguing insight. Very thought provoking. I don’t think plea bargaining is allowed in Britain though.

  17. I should perhaps add that the comments underneath are, in my opinion, the interesting part, especially the ones from a self-confessed teenage/underage groupie. Her arguments and experiences closely resemble those of the girls I knew who went to clubs and knew guys in bands back in the close to ‘legendary’ past.

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