by TheJusticeofthePeace @ 02.
Dec. 2010. – 10:52:00
My court will still be operating long after this government has passed into history. It is a large modern building and probably will be absorbing one or more courts which are destined themselves to be history in the next year or so. The work within is not any different from that at hundreds of others in an urban environment. With a bench approaching two hundred souls and a permanent District Judge sitting in the remand court is not an everyday experience and so one tends to remember some matters more readily than on other occasions.
Such was the case not so long ago when five matters stood out from the many that were called on.
There were two brothers one aged 22 and the other 14 charged with vehicle theft x 3. The facts as stated by CPS common to each offence were that the allegedly stolen cars, all fairly high value, were loaded on to a low loader equipped with a winch. We were told that a witness had on one occasion seen a very young man, not very tall, accompanied by an older man, , getting into the truck and driving off. We committed both to the crown court with a bail condition, unchanged from that of the police bail on which they appeared, of not to drive any lorry equipped with a winch or a towing or loading device. That was a first for me and my colleagues.
Once again an alcoholic of NFA with pages of “previous”, who had been detained overnight and who looked twice his 43 years was fined and released on time served. What other way is there of dealing with these examples of society`s outcasts? Until there is cases like this will continue to demean our civilised society.
And then there were three other cases from the cells with considerably more serious outcomes. A man in his fifties was brought before us charged with s18 wounding. He had allegedly after an altercation cut an ex partner`s arm with an old fashioned open razor causing her to need fifteen stitches. She was lucky. He missed an artery. The pictures were not a pretty sight. His lawyer did his best with his bail application which had no more chance of succeeding than a snowball surviving half an hour in a hot oven. The defendant had allegedly committed the offence whilst under a suspended sentence order, he had previous offences on bail, previous violence against women the most recent having been about a year previously and had twice breached bail. If ever a lawyer went through the motions it was this defendant`s representative. If I wore a hat I`d take it off to him. He certainly earned his £7.50 or whatever pittance the Legal Services Commission now deems appropriate.
What can one do with a defendant newly arrived from Eastern Europe pleading guilty on two charges of possessing a flick knife and a bladed article, arrested with the knife, almost comatose in a drug induced state sleeping on a bench opposite the police station who was released on police bail and arrested again with class A possession and who on a previous day refused to co-operate with probation, sat mute when interviewed by the court psychiatrist and whose representative told us that even with an interpreter he did not say a word when she tried to take instruction? He was sent to the crown court. Their honours can earn their wages on him.
Any remand court in my opinion always throws up at least one example of gross inefficiency by one of the many agencies whose timely and adequate input on the day is a vital necessity for work to proceed smoothly. On that day it was our local constabulary at fault. We were told by our legal advisor that one particular overnight custody case, a breach of curfew, had to be completed by 11.30am. He was being held at a nearby police station. Accordingly at about 10.15am we asked the usher…….at least in court one we don`t have to beg, steal or borrow one………about Mr X to which the reply was, “ He`s not here but his lawyer has been waiting for him since 9.30am.” About 11.10pm we are told he is in the cells. At this point the usher should have advised his lawyer to go to him immediately. With a packed courtroom and everything happening the bench overlooked reminding the usher who wasn`t in one place long enough for it to register. The result was Mr X was brought into court where his lawyer asked for time to take instructions. He is given ten minutes and both head downstairs. Meantime CPS tell us that police had not informed SERCO until 10.30am that Mr X was due in court. At 11.28am with Mr X in the dock his lawyer tells us that Mr X who looked to be at death`s door had been in hospital but until he had seen a letter purportedly to that effect being held by the police he could not advise his client to admit or deny. CPS withdrew the charge. The chairman emphasised to the prosecutor that the bench`s dismay be conveyed to the senior officer in charge at the station. What can one do? And this is prior to the HMCS 24% cash reduction in our area.
During this sitting we retired once only for five minutes when we decided to send the knife carrying comatose unresponsive defendant to crown court for sentence. Twenty one matters were held over until 2.00pm where another court would perhaps have squeezed in three or four after their allotted work. That means that about sixteen or seventeen defendants who we knew had been there since around 10.00am according to the usher would have wasted a day and will have to return. What kind of country are we living in? What kind of justice system do we want? What kind of justice system do we deserve? What kind of justice system are we heading towards?