Help for those caught in justice system
support website set up by man acquitted of killing daughter
Published:
A WEBSITE set up to support people going through the criminal trial process by a man acquitted last month of killing his baby in a house fire has received close to 2,000 hits in the last few days.
William Middleton, who walked free after a two-week trial at the High Court in Aberdeen when the jury found the charge not proven, said he had received messages of support for the website from all over the world.
People who have spent time on remand and their families said there was an urgent need to support those who claim they were wrongly accused.
Mr Middleton, 33, was accused of starting two fires in his Shetland home and murdering nine-month-old Anna-lise on September 20 last year. He has previously described the five months between the fire and his acquittal as a “relentless nightmare”.
Now he says it is crucial to help others going through the same thing and uses the website to give practical and emotional advice.
He said: “It is about helping others in the same situation that I have been in. I just really feel that you can’t offer people in that situation enough support.”
Mr Middleton also wants to help the families.
He said that while in prison he realised the website was “very much needed” and said creating it was “a kind of therapy” for him. Mr Middleton hopes eventually to be able to talk to and write to prisoners needing help and tell them about how he coped in HMP Craiginches in Aberdeen.
“One of the things I found difficult was that because of my situation I was quite emotional but I couldn’t show that emotion or I would have been made a victim of bullying in there.”
Mr Middleton, currently unemployed, also intends to take legal training and a psychology course so he can talk from an expert’s perspective as well as a personal one.
Additionally, he is appealing for solicitors to add their contact details to the website and, if possible, give advice on the site, www.wronglyaccusedperson.org.uk
“I have received a lot of positive feedback. A lot of people are saying it is very much needed and that they wished there was something like this when they were going through it.”
