Monday, 20 May 2024

A week before trial, Eleanor's lawyers pushed for a Guilty Plea.

In late 2014, following Eleanor’s death and during David de Freitas’s press campaign, I informed him, via his lawyer Harriet Wistrich, that Eleanor’s legal team had previously attempted to negotiate a plea bargain with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) a week before trial.

At the time, I was being accused in the media of being a rapist. In an effort to clear my name and demonstrate my innocence, I sought to show that Eleanor had lied. Unfortunately, Ms. Wistrich accused me of lying about this alleged plea bargain. Back then, I did not have the evidence to prove this.

I am pleased to say this has now changed.

For context, Eleanor was charged with “Perverting the Course of Justice,” a serious indictable offence—rightly so, given the gravity of the situation. There is, however, a lesser charge, “Wasting Police Time,” which is typically reserved for minor offences such as hoax calls to police. Cases involving this charge are usually dealt with in Magistrates' Court, where sentences are more limited.

When false allegations are targeted at a specific individual or are sustained over time, the CPS usually opts for the more serious charge of Perverting the Course of Justice, as they did in Eleanor’s case.

In May 2024, I contacted the prosecuting counsel for Eleanor’s case with some queries about the prosecution (on a different matter relating to misuse of trial documents). During this correspondence, he also confirmed that Eleanor’s lawyer had approached him to ask if the CPS would accept a guilty plea to the lesser charge of Wasting Police Time. Here is the email:


This revelation is important for two reasons. First, Harriet Wistrich, acting as David de Freitas’s lawyer, has publicly dismissed this as being "untrue". Second, it suggests that Eleanor’s own legal team may not have believed her account. If they had confidence in her story, why would they propose a guilty plea to a lesser offence?

The prosecuting counsel also noted in his email that the CPS had rejected the plea bargain. However, he could not confirm whether the suggestion had come directly from Eleanor or was initiated by her lawyer. 





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