As part of their training, police detectives are taught to check out complaints. This will include bad character witness complaints. The problem with operation Yewtree is that they ignored these principles.

By the time Rolf Harris’s trial commenced the press had effectively convicted him several times and would continue to report in this manner throughout his trial.

From the outset there was a media frenzy with the tabloid press branding Rolf Harris and other celebrities who were charged with historic sexual offences with pejorative terms that were guaranteed to sell newspapers.

Why did police officers on Operation Yewtree allow a bad character witness to give the court evidence that they must have known was inaccurate?

When the news broke that Rolf Harris had been arrested and interviewed three other women came forward with complaints of indecent assault. All three had a legal right to anonymity.

During the first trial the jury was presented with bad character evidence that had largely gone unchallenged. Did this result in an unfair trial?

In any high-profile case there is the likelihood that people who claim to be victims will jump on the bandwagon with allegations that are either false or so weak that they are borderline in their criminality or don’t fall within the definitions of what constitutes a crime at all

William Merritt Thank you for unpacking the appalling case against this man in your book. Anyone reading it can not fail to know that Rolf is a miscarriage of justice, a sacrifice to a world that thrives on the salacious. I’m sending a private message to you!

The Secret Solicitor William Merritt Men would often fall asleep on my shoulder on the way home from work, on The Metropolitan Line...and sometimes, I fell asleep on the shoulders of others. Today, women would be accusing men of 'sexual abuse', when it was purely exhaustion. We were different back then..far nicer.

We have all been guilty of embellishing stories, particularly the old ones, in order to make them sound more dramatic. The Truth Behind the Lies is available to by now on Amazon ow.ly/6yc050K68mY

William Merritt Anyone who is accused of sexual assault, take note. Our police force does not have the capabilities to do a thorough investigation. By reading this book you will see how easy it is for the innocent to be found guilty.

Confabulation is when a person plugs gaps in their memory with imaginary experiences to the extent that they come to believe that the event happened.

Science of memory is a massive subject and I can hardly claim to be an expert. However, I've read many books/ papers since it became relevant in my life and it horrifies me that this is treated as more or less irrelevant in a case relating to decades back. How could a jury know?

Confabulation, where a person comes to believe an event happened, can have serious repercussions for an accused person who has never met the complainant, let alone assaulted them.

If a police detective intends using evidence to show the bad character of the accused, it is the detective’s civil duty to ensure that the witness does not have an ulterior motive for coming forward.

The officers of Operation Yewtree were willing to accept evidence of bad character without carrying out some basic checks and investigations into the accuracy of the evidence.

New Zealand Police Detective Course 1975 - Examination Question: Q: What is the purpose of an interview? A: To obtain the truth. This was a question that has stayed in my mind and which has hopefully stood me in good stead for the last 50 years.

In October 2013 William's expertise in criminal and civil investigation was first called upon to assist Defence Counsel in historic sex offence cases. His success in establishing the truth has been acknowledged by some of London's leading criminal defence barristers.