The Accused: Beyond Reasonable Doubt ends tonight with the devastating story of David Bryant, whose life was turned upside down after false allegations led to him being wrongly jailed.
David had built a respected life in Christchurch, Dorset, where he lived with his wife Lynn and their family.
A former fire station chief, he was even awarded The Freedom of the Borough, the highest ceremonial honour the local council could give.
David Bryant was wrongly jailed for a sexual assault based on evidence from a ‘fantasist’ (Credit: Channel 4)
Everything changed on October 20, 2012, when a handwritten letter arrived at his home.
The years that followed are explored in The Accused: Beyond Reasonable Doubt, revealing the shocking ordeal David and Lynn endured.
The Accused: Beyond Reasonable Doubt’s David Bryant case
David retired in 2006 and was enjoying life until his friend Alex Stanley received a distressed phone call from Lynn in 2012.
Alex says: “Something in her voice just didn’t sound right. She said, ‘We’ve had this letter put through the door’.”
The letter read: “Dave, it’s Danny Day. 35 years ago I used to collect the glasses in the Legion. And I am the one you played darts with in the fire station.
“At six o’clock tonight I’m going to the fire station to report what went on. And at 7, I’m going to the national papers.
“I think it’s time you and me had a chat. I think this is in your interest to call. One way or another you will pay for what you had done in late ’76 or early ’77.”
David barely remembered Danny, while Lynn was left “inconsolable”.
Danny later accused David and another former firefighter of raping him in the late 1970s.
In a police interview shown in the documentary, Danny says: “There was this thing coming out a couple of months ago with Jimmy Savile. I had to come forward because I kind of think there must have been other youngsters involved in this who maybe aren’t as strong as me.”
Operation Yewtree had been announced the previous day following the Jimmy Savile scandal.
David Bryant jailed for sexual assault
David denied the allegations throughout but was charged. The second man accused by Danny had died in 2003.
David stood trial at Bournemouth Crown Court in December 2013 with family and friends supporting him.
His solicitor Mark Hensleigh says: “It’s one person’s word against another.”
Danny told the court he remembered a pool table in the fire station and being led through a fire exit. Friends of David pointed out neither existed there in 1976.
“It just seemed a nonsense,” says retired firefighter Paul Jarvis.
David’s friends Alex and Simon Stanley have continued to stand by him (Credit: Channel 4)
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