Lady Lavinia Nourse calls her two-week historical child sex abuse trial an “absolute nightmare”.
A former High Court judge’s widow, who was cleared of historical sex abuse, has called for those accused to be granted anonymity until charged.
Lady Lavinia Nourse, 77, of Newmarket in Suffolk, was cleared of 17 counts of sexually abusing a boy under 12.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, she said “anonymity up to the point of charge” would be a “step forward”.
She has also questioned “why the complainant cannot be revealed after the case”.
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Lady Lavinia, who was married to Sir Martin Nourse, was accused of abuse by a man known to her two months after her 85-year-old husband died in 2017.
Eighteen months later, she was charged with five counts of indecently assaulting a boy and 12 counts of indecency with a child in the 1980s. All charges related to the same complainant.
A jury at Peterborough’s Nightingale court cleared her of all charges. Lady Lavinia said she felt the case would not have got to court if she “hadn’t had such a high profile husband”. The Crown Prosecution Service has been asked for comment about her claim.
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“The accuser was very happy to let it be known widely in London, and in and around Newmarket, using his name, and freely admitting that this is what I had done,” she said.
“It was intolerable on top of everything else. I didn’t know who was looking at me, where I could turn, I didn’t know who I could trust.”
Lady Lavinia describes the two-week trial as “hell” and said she had “never been so frightened, lonely, [and] utterly miserable”.
“There was a very high chance that if I was found guilty that I would go to jail and I just find it really frightening that people can tell lies that actually can send an innocent person to prison,” she said.
She added it was an “absolute nightmare” to have to sit and “listen to all the ghastly things that were said about me”.
image copyrightTerry-Harris.com
Lady Lavinia said she now wanted to “raise awareness of the question of anonymity up to the point of charge”.
“Everyone remains anonymous, that in itself would be a step forward,” she said.
“I think it’s less likely that in the immediate future, we will get anonymity after being charged.
“But I would like to ask the question, why can the complainant then not be revealed after the case?”
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