Strengthening the Prosecution Process
Charging
Following Lord Justice Auld's Review of the Criminal Courts in October 2001 the CPS has taken over responsibility for the decision to charge in all but minor cases.
Building on successful pilots and working in partnership with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and local police forces, ‘shadow’ and Statutory Charging arrangements are currently in place at 369 of the 380 police custody units across England and Wales with 268 providing some form of face-to-face advice.
The Office of Government Commerce Gateway review of the Charging Programme in June 2004 led to the programme receiving funding for full implementation in SR2004 and by May 2005, the CPS had successfully implemented Statutory Charging Scheme arrangements in 15 Areas. The remaining 27 Areas, currently operating under 'shadow' charging arrangements, will move to the Statutory Charging Scheme by March 2007.
Over the year the Charging Programme team conducted a series of Post Implementation Reviews (PIRs) to provide assurance on the long-term sustainability of the Statutory Charging arrangements. All 14 Priority Areas that moved to Statutory Charging between May and November 2004 have received PIRs and were found to have satisfactory arrangements in place. These reviews have provided best practice guidance and informed planning for Areas to follow on the Statutory scheme. The Charging Programme team also issued the Prosecution Team Manual of Guidance, incorporating the Joint Performance Instructions (JOPI) in September 2004 which was circulated to Areas.
Case Study
University student Sara Cameron, 23, was found murdered with signs of sexual assault on 20th April 2000. A murder enquiry began which led to over 5,000 local men being DNA tested, 4,000 witness statements being taken, 8,000 house-to-house enquiries, and hundreds of hours of CCTV footage being studied. CPS Northumbria advised the police from the start on a range of issues including how to conduct investigations abroad, including accessing DNA databases in countries such as Holland; and how to store and organise 5,000 exhibits. Michael Robinson had a routine DNA test following his arrest for a dispute with a neighbour. His test matched DNA taken from the original scene and he was arrested on 13th February 2004.
Senior Crown Prosecutor Colin Darroch advised the police to charge Robinson with murder and attempted rape. Robinson pleaded guilty at Newcastle Crown Court and on 21st October 2004 was sentenced to serve a minimum of 18 years imprisonment and was placed on the sex offenders register for life.
Case Study
Following the death of a young man who died over 15 months after an attack, the law was changed to allow an attacker to be prosecuted for a homicide offence if their victim lived longer than 366 days after the original offence. Keith Stephenson pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm in October 2002 after hitting Charles Ratcliffe on the head with a piece of wood. Mr Ratcliffe, who sustained a fractured skull and a blood clot, developed epilepsy as a result of the attack and died from a fit in February 2004.
CPS Northumbria investigated whether it was possible to prove that Mr Ratcliffe's death was a direct result of the assault. After examining the facts, Kingsley Hyland advised police that Stephenson should be charged with manslaughter, a decision backed by the Attorney General. On 26th April 2005, at Newcastle Crown Court, Stephenson pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 3 years in a young offenders institution.
Chief Crown Prosecutor (CCP) Nicola Reasbeck stated "The year-and-a-day rule was a small but significant change in the law. While such cases do not happen very often, and it's very sad when they do, the legislation now enables a bereaved family to feel that justice has been done."
Case study
Operation Market was a joint Police and CPS response to football related violent disorder before and after the Portsmouth vs.Southampton game on Sunday 21st March 2004. Following the game CCP Nick Hawkins provided pre-charge advice on every case and CPS staff conducted all the hearings in the magistrates, Youth and Crown Courts. This resulted in 99 prosecutions, with 98 convictions, 98 banning orders and 88 custodial sentences.
At Portsmouth Crown Court after the last sentencing hearing in April 2004, His Honour Judge Cowling praised the police and the CPS and stated "I would also like, if I may, Mr Hawkins, to pay tribute to the Crown Prosecution Service, who prepared and managed the prosecutions with, in my judgement, great skill and efficiency and I would like to thank you and your colleagues who have been involved in that. Thank you."
Following this work, on 13th April 2005 Nick attended the game between the same two sides and provided on call legal advice to the police. This year there were only 5 arrests, all for only minor offences.
CPS Direct
The CPS introduced CPS Direct to provide an out-of-hours telephone service that allows prosecutors to work from their own home to provide the police with charging advice through the night and at weekends. By May 2005, prosecutors working for CPS Direct had dealt with 132,656 out-of-hours calls from police forces and provided 71,644 formal advices on the charges to be applied.The service provided by CPS Direct will be extended to further CJS Areas as they move to the Statutory Scheme throughout 2005-06.
Case Study
John Storey, CPS Direct Lawyer
John Storey joined CPS Direct at its launch in September 2003 after being involved with setting up the ‘shadow’ charging scheme in Huddersfield Criminal Justice Unit. CPS Direct has provided a new challenge for John, he is now providing on the spot charging advice on a wide variety of offences ranging from theft to murder.
The flexible working hours within CPS Direct have also benefited John by allowing him to spend more time with his family.
Recovering Proceeds of Crime
The CPS continues to develop its approach to the confiscation of assets following the introduction of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA), which increased the powers of the police and prosecutors to recover assets from criminals.
The CPS continues to develop its approach to the confiscation of assets following the introduction of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA), which increased the powers of the police and prosecutors to recover assets from criminals.
In February 2004 the CPS provided a CPS lawyer for each of the five multi-agency Regional Asset Recovery Teams (RARTs) which were launched using funds from the Recovered Assets Incentivisation Fund. The RARTs include investigators from the police, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and the Asset Recovery Agency. The CPS lawyer provides legal advice to the police on asset recovery issues and assists with Area training. To help manage asset recovery more effectively the CPS has contributed to the development of a multi-agency Joint Asset Recovery Database (JARD).This system will provide accurate and up-to-date information with comprehensive reports detailing orders raised and assets recovered.
In the 12 months to April 2005, the number of POCA confiscation orders increased five-fold. The combined volume and value of POCA and pre-POCA confiscation orders obtained increased by 50% to 2,068 orders with a total value of £61.2 million. In the same period, the number of POCA and pre-POCA restraint orders obtained by CPS increased by 80% to 345 restraint orders; 211 were POCA orders obtained by CPS Areas, the remaining 134 pre- POCA orders were obtained by the Central Confiscation Branch (CCB). A total of £20.8 million was collected in respect of CPS confiscation orders of which £16.9 million was collected by CCB.
Case Study
Over a 12-month period Stephen Ingham obtained 3 vehicles, including a Jaguar, numerous bank accounts and credit facilities using a false identity. Ingham was convicted at Liverpool Crown Court of 3 counts of obtaining property by deception and 10 counts of obtaining services by deception. He was sentenced to 21/2 years imprisonment and confiscation proceedings began based on Inghams criminal benefit of £115,000. At the confiscation hearing Ingham was criticised for failing to disclose assets and bank accounts. The Judge agreed with the prosecution that 'discretionary assumptions' should apply, which led to evidence of additional payments into his bank accounts being taken into consideration. In April 2005 the Court issued a confiscation order for £724,122.07. Ingham was given 5 months to pay or face a further 5 years imprisonment.
Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)
The CPS will play a crucial role in providing high quality independent prosecution services to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). The CPS is working with Revenue & Customs Prosecution Office (RCPO), the Home Office and other law enforcement and intelligence agencies to develop the prosecution arrangements for this new service. Over the year the CPS has conducted a review of its arrangements for prosecuting serious and organised crime. As a result its Casework Directorate has become three new divisions dealing with organised crime, counter-terrorism and specialised crime. From October 2005 a cadre of expert prosecutors will be established to provide a dedicated prosecution service to SOCA ready for it becoming fully operational in April 2006.
"We will provide an independent, world-class prosecuting service to SOCA through the provision of specialist prosecutors dedicated to SOCA cases. They will work shoulder to shoulder with SOCA, providing high quality legal advice from the earliest stages of investigations to build stronger cases."
Ken Macdonald QC, Director of Public Prosecutions.
In November 2004 the CPS became a part of the first agreement to initiate a Joint Investigation Team (JIT), the Council of Europe's new flagship vehicle for investigating cross border crime. The agreement, which is between the CPS, the National Crime Squad and their counterparts in the Netherlands, was formally signed in January 2005. The aim of JIT is to investigate and prosecute drug trafficking between the Netherlands and England and Wales. By working in close co-operation information can be shared and acted upon immediately, with suspects identified quickly and strong cases built.
Case Study
In December 2004 Alan Clair was sentenced to eight years imprisonment for possessing articles in circumstances that gave reasonable suspicion that they were to be used for a purpose connected to terrorism. A search of his home revealed a number of firearms, including a sub machine gun, pistols and sawn off shotguns and other material indicating he was connected with the Ulster Volunteer Force.
International Co-operation
The CPS has four liaison magistrates in France, Spain, Italy and the United States who act as international representatives for the UK criminal justice agencies. They help to improve cooperation in legal matters such as making the process of obtaining evidence and extradition orders much easier. Claire Brown, liaison magistrate for France stated "working as a liaison magistrate is an important job because of the growth of trans-national crime and new measures are being put in place such as joint investigation teams and the new European Arrest Warrant to make co-operation easier."
Case Study
Operation Alburnham involved National Crime Squad (NCS) Rugby, HM Revenue & Customs at Dover and the regional Crime Unit at Solihull. Four defendants were charged with conspiracy to supply controlled class B drugs between August 1998 and November 2003. A Letter of Request was sent to the Spanish authorities as Spanish evidence was potentially crucial to the case. There was constant liaison between Aled WiIlliams, the Liaison Magistrate in Spain, the Spanish authorities and NCIS in London to obtain relevant information within very tight timescales. At Coventry Crown Court the evidence was successfully used to convict the two principal defendants, Suckling and Wilkes, who were jailed for 10 and 8 years respectively. Confiscation proceedings have resulted with Suckling deemed to have benefited from the crime to a value of £7 million, and Wilkes to a value of £545,000.
Roger Coe-Salazar, CCP Gloucestershire
In May 2005, Roger Coe-Salazar, CCP Gloucestershire attended a UN development project conference in Egypt for modernising Arab states prosecution services. The conference was attended by prosecutors from Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Jordan and Yemen, international organisations and representatives from United Nations Agencies. The conference concentrated on issues such as modernising the concept of public prosecutors and the reform of criminal justice in the Arab region; the need for training; and co-operation between the Arab region and the international community to fight trans-national crime.
Following this conference Roger has now been asked to sit on the International Advisory Group. This high profile role provides the CPS with a great opportunity to influence work in this area and also develop our reputation as a world-class prosecuting agency.
Conditional Cautioning
Conditional cautions enable the prosecutor, where it is in the public interest, to make offenders carry out specified conditions rather than being prosecuted. If the conditions are not followed offenders will be charged for the offence and put before a court.
So far, Conditional Cautions have been used in cases of criminal damage, theft, and common assault. The types of conditions imposed have mainly required the offender to pay compensation of an amount of money over a specified period of time. Other conditions have involved writing a letter of apology to the victim and taking part in a Drug Intervention Programme set up specifically for Conditional Cautions.
Early implementation of the initiative began in December 2004 in Lancashire and the scheme has now been extended to parts of West Mercia, South Yorkshire, Northumbria,Thames Valley and West Midlands. The disposal is also available to prosecutors at the Liverpool North Community Justice Centre.
Restorative Justice
Restorative justice is a process that brings victims and their offenders into contact, either directly or indirectly, to decide how to deal with the aftermath of the offence and to agree on how the offender can make amends. Involvement in a restorative justice process can either be made a condition of the caution, where both victim and offender agree to take part; or the restorative justice process can itself be the way in which the conditions of the caution are decided. An example might be where the offender had damaged the victim's property and was willing to pay compensation or repair the damage; either payment or repair would be the condition of the caution.The victim may wish to meet the offender to explain the effects the offence had on them and the family and for the offender to apologise.
COMPASS
The COMPASS CMS has continued to be a success throughout 2004-05. As of March 2005 the system had 7,598 users across the CPS and nearly 3 million cases have been registered since the system went live. There have been a number of updates this year including the introduction of markers for different hate crime categories so that these can be effectively monitored; and the introduction of screens to support statutory charging.
Joined up IT
The CPS is working closely with the Police IT Organisation (PITO) and Criminal Justice IT (CJIT) and is testing an electronic interface between the police National Strategy for Police Information Systems (NSPIS), Case Preparation and COMPASS CMS in Humberside. This interface will play a key role in maximising the use of electronic case files throughout the CJS and is a significant move towards achieving a modernised, joined-up criminal justice IT system.
Secure email
The use of secure email has also been increased across the CJS throughout the year, allowing criminal justice practitioners to communicate and exchange case information more securely. The CJS has extended this facility to barristers and solicitors in private practice in order to speed up overall case management and preparation for court.
Electronic Information at Court
The CPS is working with the Crown Court to roll-out the Exchange of Hearing Information By Internet Technology (Xhibit). This system provides up-to-date trial listings and case results information for the CPS and for victims and witnesses at court. The Service is also working with other prosecuting authorities and with colleagues in the DCA to explore the wider use of IT for the electronic presentation of evidence.
