A matter of time

• Limitation periods and prosecuting after long delays.

Alimitation period, eg 12 years, is common in continental countries. The arguments against allowing a prosecution after delay, especially long delay, have arisen in the context of alleged offences by British soldiers in Northern Ireland at ‘Bloody Sunday’ in 1972, and in the case of alleged offences of historic sex, eg Field Marshal Lord Bramall, Lord Brittan QC, Lord Janner QC, Mr Paul Gambaccini, Mr Harvey Proctor, and Sir Cliff Richard, none of whom (apart from Lord Janner) has ever been charged.

The defence will claim prejudice, the impossibility of a fair trial. Memories will have faded; witnesses will be unreliable, or untraceable, or dead; no DNA evidence will be available; no records; no photographs; and corroboration is not legally required. D will be seriously handicapped in conducting a defence. The trial will become ‘his word against mine’. D will in effect have to prove his innocence. The credibility