Cleared Cardiff doctor backs child sex abuse case review

Stephen Glascoe said the last 18 months had been an "unmitigated nightmare"

A former family doctor has welcomed a review into how historical child sexual abuse charges were brought against him.

Stephen Glascoe, 67, denied 13 charges, including rape of a young girl and performing an illegal abortion, dating back to between 1988 and 1996.

The Crown Prosecution Service dropped the charges against the former Cardiff GP at Newport Crown Court on Monday after new evidence came to light.

The court heard police and prosecutors will review the handling of the case.

Mr Glascoe's barrister Christopher Clee QC said the case against his client should never have been brought.

Judge Thomas Crowther QC directed not guilty verdicts in all charges against Mr Glascoe and four other defendants - who denied all allegations - two weeks before the trial was about to start at Cardiff Crown Court.

It brought to an end an 18-month "unmitigated nightmare" for Mr Glascoe since he was arrested returning from holiday at Bristol Airport in July 2016.

The court heard texts and emails between police and the complainant have been reviewed.

Mr Glascoe alleges those messages demonstrate a partisan relationship, a claim South Wales Police deny as they said electronic communication was essential because the complainant lives outside of Wales.

Now he hopes a review between the CPS and senior police officers will "learn lessons".

"This can't be allowed to happen again," he told the BBC. "There are a lot of lessons to be learned here.

"The first is to be very careful when you hear terrible, lurid, tales of abuse because it's not a case of the more terrible they are, the more truthful they must be, it's the more terrible they are, the more carefully they must be investigated.

"I'm all in favour of genuine perpetrators of sexual assault being brought to book but where complainants are going to believed without any question at all, there are going to be miscarriages of justice."

Mr Glascoe said the stress has had a "devastating effect" on his life as he feared he could have gone to prison for the rest of his life.

"I was likely to die in prison if these charges were believed," he said.

"I have only just escaped a horrible miscarriage of justice."

South Wales Police has said it will review the investigation "in due course" and "act on any lessons".