Hope it went well for you today Zola been thinking of you

Zola, poor you, this has been going on now for a year (as I recall?) and they are obviously within the time limit to prosecute as their solicitors will know if they had left it too late. You should take legal advice about the consequences of going public. You may not have committed a crime as far as I or other sane people consider, however, I was dragged to court FIVE times and yes, I do have a criminal record now, not that I give a monkey's. And any legal representation you take on has to be a CRIMINAL lawyer. That's just the way it is, that is the category into which it falls. As moonstone says, you seem not to have much to lose. What also enrages me is how much of their ill-gotten donations they are spending on your case. They are hoping to get the whole lot back from you in costs of course. If you DO attend court, and if you plead NOT GUILTY which everyone told me I should then that just angers the magistrates even more and you will get a far worse sentence, plus every court appearance goes on your bill (if you lose). To go to trial would cost megabucks. If you do not have the means to pay they will take a charge on your house if you own it etc etc. A recent case in the paper, past few weeks, a dog groomer left a dog in a homemade "drying cabinet" whereupon it suffered such dreadful burns it was pts. She only got a conditional discharge. But other people whose animals are old and look a bit worse for wear at the age of 20 or 25, people who have looked after those animals lovingly for donkey's years get a ten year ban, 200 hours community service, thousands in costs. As far as that woman is concerned, you can bet she is still in the dog grooming business.
I can't see that you have much to lose Zola, and am so sorry to hear your health is suffering. One thing is for sure, the RSPCA hatebad publicity and they have MANY non-supporters now. I know of no-one who would donate to the rspca so I really don't know where they get all their cash from; but they do then they spend it on hounding ladies like you. I am not sure what the implications are of going public before a case; but in your position I would find out from your solicitor and get on with it. Apart from the cost, how much TIME have they spent on your case which the COULD have spent helping strays which, shamefully, they no longer do.

Good luck.

I don't the outcome for speaking out before a court case but if i were you i would be very tempted as usual you been " trapped" by that evil lot getting the press involved in your case could be invaluable to you and really you have nothing to lose it's not a criminal case the one thing the animal thugs hate is bad publicity and this will be bad news for them

Oh and does anyone know the implications to my case if I go public before it gets to court?

Thanks for all the support, sorry I haven't been on here for a while.

Well I went for the 2nd interview didn't I to get the caution, I was uneasy about the whole thing but due to the stress I was under (and had had to cancel my op because I couldn't recover and handle a court case at the same time) and that I may not get legal aid, my solicitor thought it would be best to just take the caution as it's meaningless and it would put an end to the whole thing.

Their solicitor asked the court to adjourn so I could be cautioned, even the letter from the court with the reason for adjournment says 'is to be cautioned'.

Anyway, last Thursday was the date it was adjourned to and I hadn't heard anything, half an hour before the court the RSPCA said no caution as I had not accepted full responsibility, they are now prosecuting.

i have had first hand experience with these B.....ds there are specialist lawyers that only deal with defending against the R.S.P.C.A i had one Granville Roolley but their are others and they offer legal aid for contact numbers of others go to the SHG website [self help group] against the R.S.P.C.A. if i can help in anyway please contact me can i just say they can leave it up to 12 mths before they decide to prosecute.

i hope all goes well in your case zola!!

Hi Zola sorry to hear you are not feeling well this is what they do to you I was sure that i am suffering from post traumatic stress due to what they did to me they are making an exception of you as you have obviously p..ssed off the "thug" by not accepting a caution and why should you when you have not done anything wrong
The one thing that they are frightened off is bad publicity so could you get some press coverage of your sorry tale and YES they are appently down to their last £49 million donations are down and they are trying to think of ways to raise more
I know it's no good saying don't worry as you know that they lie/cheat/falsify evidence to get their own way just don't expect them to tell the truth as they wouldn't know it if they fell over it
Does your legal advisor have experience of them? if so he will know how they lie they only use judges/solicitor's who will be on their side so expect that
Try to keep your chin up we have been through this to so we know what you are going through

Sorry to hear that Zola, yes, they like to bully their victims (unless they are travellers who might give as good as they get). Then they leave them alone despite members of the public ringing and asking them to act. I think if you are ill you should maybe have the case adjourned for your own good. But maybe you don't want it dragging out. Am not sure exactly what charge they are bringing against you. Section 4 is the bad one and they will try to pin that on you even tho it's meant to be for deliberate and active cruelty. Don't let them get their hands on your other animals or they won't last long. can't your solicitor tell you if you are eligible for legal aid - are you sure he will do it? When I applied, CAB gave me a list of local legal aid solicitors and believe me it was a short list - three - of whom two said they would not do it and the third was a waste of time.

Good luck and keep us informed!! I think their money is down a bit, must check with Wikipedia, but if their money IS down, they'll be going for prosecutions like a dog with a bone. I described mine as a "bully" and the solicitor nodded. He said they were like the Gestapo.

Quick UPDATE:

She refused to send the summons recorded delivery so I had to come out of work to get it off her, I wouldn't allow her at my house or work. I didn't sign for it as I told her I needed to read what I was signing for and didn't have time then as she was 15 minutes late.

She said she would come to my house with the police, have me arrested and forced to sign it. She then said she hopes I get a ban and have all my animals taken off me (sounds like I've got a farm!), proper little tantrum she had, trying to stop me getting back to my car.

Anyway court date is next month, I have a different solicitor, specialist, not sure if I can get legal aid but will just have to get on with it.

I went to my Doctor last week again with stress, he's offered to sign me off work but I declined for now, I don't think it will help sitting at home. He gave me a prescription for medication for a stomach ulcer, I'll see how that goes or may have to go off work if it gets too much, it all started last year after RSPCA hassle but had got better, now it's back with all the court business.

Hi Zola....saw your update on facebook (not able to put messages on there as something has gone wrong with my account-not sure what though )
I still suspect that she will try to get you to accept a caution I think that is maybe why she is insisting on delivering the summons in person they rule by fear and intimidation threatening you with court is another way to try to get her own way and get you to accept the caution
I hope that you will be OK thanks for the update as it's always good to be kept informed of what is happening

Hi all

Just a quick update - she phoned me last night to say she needs to hand the court summons to me, so it's all going ahead!

I know how it feels to be betrayed Trilby the evil bitch who grassed on me was a person who i had looked after and tried to help as she suffers from mental health problems i gave her money/clothes and supported her frail mental state yet when i discovered that she was putting stories about me on chat forums claiming that i was an animal abuser and asking for money to "rescue" my pets from me i severed the friendship she reported me out of spite she herself had been reported but she got herself of a cruelty charge by claiming falsely that all the animals in her care had been rescued from me
That is the one thing that hurts the most apart from the humiliation that RSPCA heaped on me that i befriended someone who would betray me someone that i invited into my home and sat having girly,gigly chats with deep into the night and all the time she was plotting behind my back to betray me
When RSPCA came they knocked on my neighbour's door to ask if they could access my garden from their house my neighbour told them where to get off that shut them up

Another thing which I would question is why they wanted to know your children's surname? Absolutely nothing to do with anything and none of their business. But yes, definitely done a bit of snouting around before they got back to you. Maybe knocked on the neighbours' doors when they got no answer from you as you were at work and some neighhbours might have thought they were being helpful. Plus, of course, in their uniforms some people mistake them for police and feel obliged to co-operate. Or maybe the neighbours were being vindictive, some people love to cause a bit of trouble. You never really know who you can trust. I didn't totally trust the people who landed me in it but I didn't really think they would go that far. People I had been good to and looked after their animals for absolutely no charge when others were asking them for £20 a day!!

You did what you thought was the best thing for your cat which was to get vet help ASAP it turned out to be the worst thing you could have done of you had been the wicked person tthat they (RSPCA) are trying to make you out to be,then you would have just left her to die but you tried to get help for her and that has been the only thing you did wrong
It is NOT an offence to have an un neutered cat or any animal for that matter :)The whole hypocrocy of this is that you have NOT DONE ANYTHING WRONG yet you are being unjustly charged
RSPCA make up the rules as they go along they tell lies falsify evidence and only target those who they deem a "soft" option
Hope you don't hear anymore from the animal thugs.