Advanced Search

Home » News Centre » Successes of the month » Successes of the Month - July 2012

Successes of the Month - July 2012

Contents

Lynda Gudgeon, Senior Crown Prosecutor, West Midlands Central

Lynda works with Intermediary to secure justice for Asperger's sufferer

Thomas Farnell and Bryn Jones, both 18, and another youth were charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm following a nasty attack. The victim suffered a broken nose and other injuries, and needed around 20 stitches.

The victim, who has Asperger's Syndrome, needed an intermediary to help him give evidence, so Lynda Gudgeon, Senior Crown Prosecutor, called the victim's father and arranged a meeting at the Early Intervention Centre, which helps the victim with social integration.

Lynda was able to put the victim's mind at rest about what would happen in court and also made arrangements for him to use an alternative court entrance to avoid meeting the defendants in the case. She then spoke with the Intermediary about whether the victim would understand the way her opening questions were phrased. Doing this work in preparation before the trial was invaluable.

The victim went through his evidence in chief smoothly. However, he found the Defence's cross examination distressing. The District Judge allowed Lynda to go to the video link room to reassure the victim and he was able to finish his cross-examination. All three defendants were convicted.

District Crown Prosecutor, John Baker, said: "This case was brought to my attention following commendations being voiced by the victim's family, the police and the intermediary involved in the case. I shared this well earned praise with Lynda and although she simply passed it off as her 'just doing her job' I felt that this excellent work should be communicated to a wider audience."

Benedict Leonard, Crown Advocate, Appeals Unit, Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, CPS HQ

Benedict goes the extra mile to clarify sentencing options for the Court of Appeal

In 2010, Rian Iles had pleaded guilty in the Crown Court to arson and criminal damage; and also in the youth court to criminal damage, possession of a bladed article and an offensive weapon, ABH, threatening behaviour, threats to kill and affray. He was sentenced to four years and recently appealed his sentence.

The Court of Appeal decided at a very late stage to hear full arguments from both sides. The CPS Appeals Unit was only notified of the hearing, listed for a Monday, on the preceding Thursday. The lawyer who had dealt with the original case was unavailable and Benedict Leonard volunteered to step in. He spent the weekend drafting submissions for the Court on this complex sentencing exercise and attended the hearing before the President of the Queen's Bench Division, Thomas LJ.

At the hearing, the Court described the relationship between sentencing youths at the youth court and Crown Court as 'impenetrable' and decided to produce guidance to bring together the various sources of law on this subject.

To do this, the Court requested further submissions from the prosecution and defence setting out the sentencing powers that the youth court, Crown Court and Court of Appeal have in respect of youths charged with a variety of offences of differing levels of seriousness. Benedict produced these, with the help of CPS Strategy and Policy colleagues, in an extremely short timeframe, working through the night to ensure the submissions were with the court in time.

In its judgment, the Court largely adopted the course suggested by Benedict, thereby helping to clarify the various sources of law on the sentencing of youths in the Youth and Crown Courts. The judgment is now available for reference in similar cases in the future.

Angela Deal, Head of the CPS Appeals Unit, said: "Benedict Leonard is one of the Crown Advocates on the Appeals Unit whose strenuous efforts to develop [Appeal Court] advocacy skills and experience should be commended. In particular, Benedict is always willing to step in at the last moment when difficulties arise, irrespective of the daunting nature of the hearing, or the amount of preparation he then has to complete in his own time."

Senior Crown Prosecutor Peter Jones, CPS Cymru/Wales

An environmental prosecution first for the CPS

Two men who damaged protected land at a farm in Llanhaedr in the Vale of Clwyd have been fined and ordered to carry out restorative works at the site, after admitting offences under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

The men destroyed part of a woodland by widening ditches and creating a new track at Llwyn Mawr farm, causing substantial habitat damage. The farm is part of an area protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), which marks it as being in one of the most environmentally sensitive areas of Wales.

Due to his specialist expertise in environmental cases, Peter Jones was enlisted to work on the case. This is the first time in Wales that the CPS has taken the lead in a criminal prosecution relating to environmental damage; in Wales, such prosecutions have previously been led by the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW).

Peter's expertise led to guilty pleas from the two defendants, resulting in the court imposing an order to force the defendants to restore the habitat to its original condition. This restoration order is not something that CCW had considered in previous cases, so they were very pleased with Peter's advice on the issue. The defendants were also fined £1000 each and costs of £2000 each.

Nick Thomas from CCW wrote to thank Peter for his work on the case, saying: "I am grateful the CPS were able to take this case forward and were able to deal with complex and - I imagine - rarely used legislation very effectively. Until you had raised the matter I had not realised that we would be able to get a restoration order in a case of third party damage... I am very pleased with today's result."

Peter said: "The two defendants were responsible for deliberate and reckless damage to an extremely delicate site. The SSSI designation is one of the strongest environmental protection measures we have in this country, which is an illustration of just how important this piece of land is. Those who seek to damage or destroy protected habitats should be under no illusion that we will pursue them vigorously through the criminal justice system."