The Accused Beyond Reasonable Doubt: Retired fireman David Bryant wrongly jailed after 'compulsive liar' makes horrendous claim
The 'fantasist' jumped on the back of the Jimmy Savile investigationThe Accused: Beyond Reasonable Doubt concludes tonight with the shocking case of David Bryant, jailed over serious lies told by a ‘fantasist’.
David Bryant lived a happy life in Christchurch, Dorset, with his wife Lynn and their grown up children.
During his career, David was in charge of the local fire station and was awarded The Freedom of the Borough – the highest ceremonial honour a local council can give.
But on October 20, 2012, David’s life changed forever thanks to handwritten note through the door.
The horrific journey David and Lynn then endured over the next few years is told in The Accused: Beyond Reasonable Doubt. And it is enough to scare anyone.
The Accused: Beyond Reasonable Doubt’s David Bryant case
David retired in 2006 and was enjoying life. But in 2012, his friend Alex Stanley received a worried phone call from Lynn.
Alex tells The Accused: Beyond Reasonable Doubt: “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 ate ’76 or early ’77.”
David had little recollection of Danny and Lynne was “inconsolable”.
It transpires Danny had gone to the police and reported David and another male of raping him in the late 70s.
Viewers of the Channel 4 documentary will hear Danny say in a police interview: “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 officially announced the day before. The high-profile investigation, run by the Metropolitan Police, came in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.
David Bryant jailed for sexual assault
David strenuously denied sexually assaulting Danny Day, yet still he was charged. The other man Danny accused was also a firefighter but he had died in 2003.
David stood trial at Bournemouth Crown Court in December 2013. He was supported by family and friends in the public gallery – who were shocked to find Danny Day also sitting there.
David’s solicitor Mark Hensleigh says: “It’s one person’s word against another.”
Danny’s told the court he recalled a pool table in the fire house. And that he was led through a fire exit. Neither were there in 1976.
“It just seemed a nonsense,” says Paul Jarvis, a retired firefighter and friend of David’s.
Yet still, the jury – with a majority of 10 to 2 – found David guilty of one count of buggery, the historical term for the offence.
Interestingly, the judge let David return home for Christmas and did not remand him into custody. He was handed a six-year prison sentence the following month.
Alex recalls: “They’d found this man who wasn’t guilty. guilty. You know in your heart he didn’t do it, deep down.”
David Bryant’s fight for freedom
David returned to court three months later. However, it was an appeal against his sentence. To his family’s disbelief, he was handed another two years in jail.
But incredibly, there was a chink of light. David met a man in prison who was also serving a sentence for sexual assault. In Danny Day’s police interview, he had told police he’d mentioned to this man that David had raped him.
The police were able to take a statement from the witness who confirmed Danny had never told him this.
In the meantime, Danny Day had launched a bid for compensation from both David and the fire service. He had already received £11,000 from the Criminal Injuries Commission.
Mr Hensleigh says: “I knew that this was clearly to do with money and that was the reason he was doing it.”
But it proved to be Danny’s downfall. In order to sue at the High Court, his medical records had to be supplied in evidence. They were handed to David’s defence team – and they blew the case wide open.
‘A compulsive liar’
Mr Hensleigh says: “There was loads of things in there we didn’t know about Danny Day. In particular, that he was a fantasist. There was a history of him going to see his GP and seeking help to the fact he was lying.”
Alex adds: “Danny Day was a compulsive liar who had actually been to the doctors seeking help because he lied so much. Who does that?”
Eventually, David’s case ended up in the Court of Appeal.
A private investigator also discovered Danny had told people he’d “been such a good boxer that he could have gone to the Olympics”. Again, this all turned out to be untrue – and helped with the weight of the Appeal case.
After hearing the evidence against Danny, David’s rape conviction was overturned by three judges. After two-and-a-half years inside, he was free to leave.
Alex shares her relief, recalling: “Those three judges said, ‘We owe you an apology. We’re sorry for what has happened to you’.”
David and Lynn Bryant’s sad ending
Viewers of The Accused: Beyond Reasonable Doubt will be sadden to hear how David and Lynn’s story ended.
In February 2017, Lynn suddenly fell ill. She was rushed to hospital but tragically died from sepsis. David had only been released from prison eight months earlier.
David, meanwhile, then began acting strangely. Alex recalls: “Dave said one day, ‘I think Lynn’s left me, I can’t find Lynn’.”
He was diagnosed with dementia and now receives 24-hour care. In the nine years he has been free from prison, David has had dementia for five of them.
“He’s a good man, he’s a lovely man. He is a gentle soul. And he didn’t deserve what he got,” Alex says.
What happened to Danny Day? Has David received compensation?
In 2020, Danny Day was charged with perverting the course of justice. He was convicted of one count and handed a nine-month suspended sentence.
David, meanwhile, has asked the Ministry of Defence for compensation for being wrongly imprisoned. However, he has not received anything.
In a statement, Dorset Police told The Accused: Beyond Reasonable Doubt that it “takes all reports of sexual assault very seriously”.
The force explains how the Crime Prosecution Service decided to prosecute David based on the case the police built.
“Mr Bryant’s case was heard by a jury who ultimately reached a guilty verdict,” Dorset Police adds. “The conviction was subsequently found to be unsafe by the Court of Appeal and overturned.”
It added that the force has “deep sympathy” for David and his family.
