Strengthening the Prosecution Process
Charging
The Criminal Justice Act 2003 gave the CPS responsibility for the decision to charge in all but minor cases. The SR 2004 settlement required the delivery of Statutory Charging across all 42 Areas by March 2007.
Working in partnership with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and local police forces, Statutory Charging arrangements are now in place in all 374 police custody units across England and Wales, with 280 providing some form of face-to-face advice. By 3 April 2006, all 42 Areas had been approved onto the statutory scheme - almost 12 months ahead of the SR 2004 target date.
The charging arrangements are already delivering considerable benefits, with prosecutors working closely with the police to build robust cases for prosecution that are helping to bring more offenders to justice, increase guilty pleas and reduce the number of cases that are discontinued.
Case Study
On 29 July 2005, Michael Barton, 17, shouted racist abuse at Anthony Walker as he waited at a bus stop with his cousin Marcus Binns and girlfriend Louise Thompson. The three walked away but were ambushed by Barton and his cousin Paul Taylor, 20, in a local park where Anthony was killed.
After fleeing to the continent, Barton and Taylor returned to the UK on 3 August. Colin Davies, Head of Serious Organised Crime Division, CPS Merseyside, was briefed by the police on the interviews with Barton and listened in to police interviews with Taylor. During breaks he was able to give the police advice on areas they should concentrate on.
Colin Davies, CPS Merseyside
By 2.30am the following morning Colin authorised both defendants be charged with murder and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent. Colin worked closely with Anthony's family and the police. He spent considerable time explaining the legal issues and likely outcomes, ensuring that the entire family understood what was happening and why.
On the first full day of trial at Preston Crown Court, sitting in Liverpool,Taylor pleaded guilty to both charges. On 30 November 2005 the jury found Barton guilty of murder. The judge ruled that the case had a racial factor and on 1 December Barton was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years and Taylor a minimum of 23 years in prison. Following the verdict, Colin, caseworker Neil Wright, the QC and the junior walked into the suite set aside for liaison with the family and were applauded by the Walker family. "It was a very moving, touching moment," said Colin. "The dignity and courage shown by the Walker family during the trial was amazing."
Stephanie Brown and her team, Sarah McIlwain and Helen Thorpe, worked closely with the police to secure the early guilty pleas of quadruple killer Mark Hobson. Stephanie was contacted by the police just before midnight on 18 July 2004 after the bodies of twins Claire and Diane Sanderson were discovered in Hobson's flat.On the same day the bodies of a house-bound couple, James and Joan Britton, were found by neighbours in their home 25 miles away. Stephanie and her team worked with the police to scrutinise 10,000 statements and numerous exhibits. She also advised on security for Hobson's court appearances and successfully fought off defence attempts to move the trial to London. In May 2005, at Leeds Crown Court, Hobson was sentenced to life meaning life,a decision upheld by London's Court of Appeal in November 2005. following their hard work, Stephanie and her team received a Chief Officer's Commendation from North Yorkshire Chief Constable Della Cannings.
CPS Direct
Area charging arrangements are supported by CPS Direct, an out-of-hours telephone service that allows experienced prosecutors to work from their own homes to provide the police with charging advice through the night and at weekends.
By the end of March 2006, the 123 prosecutors working for CPS Direct had dealt with 157,150 out-of-hours calls from police forces and provided 96,108 advices on the charges to be applied.
Case Study
A CPS Direct Duty Prosecutor helped CPS London make legal history when Farhan Osman was successfully prosecuted for attempted rape without the victim ever being traced. Osman was arrested minutes after the attack, but the victim and witness who had helped the girl had disappeared.
CPS Direct Prosecutor Sophie Judge said: "It was an interesting case to deal with because of the lack of a victim and the fact that I had to rely entirely on the account of the CCTV given over the phone by the officer in the case." Sophie consulted CPS Direct colleagues on duty that night, taking into account their experience and suggestions to assist in making the decision to charge.
Her decision was later confirmed by the reviewing lawyer and on 14 June 2005 at Inner London Crown Court, Osman pleaded guilty to attempted rape. On 12 August 2005, at the same court, he was sectioned under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act.
Case Study
Christine Hutton, CPS Direct
In separate incidents on 21 April 2005, three girls were approached by a man as they walked close to their school. Two of the girls managed to run away, but the third was dragged into the school grounds and subjected to a prolonged violent and sexual assault. Following an anonymous tip-off, police arrested Peter Cunliffe two days later. Cunliffe was already on bail for serious sexual assault and had breached the conditions by running away and staying with his grandmother in the area close to the scene of the offences. Moira MacMillan, seconded from Avon and Somerset to CPS Direct, took the call and worked with the police for several hours providing ongoing legal support to the investigation through a series of telephone calls, e-mails and faxes. Moira advised on a number of evidential issues, including whether identification procedures were necessary and what alternative sources of evidence might place the suspect at the scene should the DNA swabs prove negative. Moira continued to advise until the point of charge, when Cunliffe was charged as a result of this incident with sexual offences and child attempt/abduction. In November 2005, at Preston Crown Court, Cunliffe was sentenced to a total of 15 years' imprisonment.
Advocacy
As part of becoming a world-class prosecuting service, the CPS is developing its own high quality advocacy in all courts. During 2005-06, HCAs in the two pathfinder projects in Hertfordshire and Hampshire and Isle of Wight, continued to advocate more cases in the Crown Court, with HCAs covering approximately 40% of non-contested and 11% of contested Crown Court hearings.
In the first three quarters of 2004-05, the value of HCA generated counsel fee savings was £1.2 million (ex VAT), equating to 2.1% of the total Crown Court Graduated Fee Scheme (GFS) advocacy value. In 2005-06, the value of generated counsel fee savings was £4.7 million (ex VAT), equating to 6.4% of the total Crown Court GFS advocacy value. The number of trials conducted by HCAs nationally in the first three quarters of 2005- 06 has increased from 26 in 2004-05 to 93 in 2005-06.
The DPP issued revised General Instructions to DCWs in relation to magistrates' courts advocacy, which came into force on 2 January 2006. DCWs may now conduct contested bail hearings and pretrial reviews in magistrates' courts. The new powers were used initially in London and Humberside, the early implementation Areas. Following national rollout of a new training programme, DCWs in all Areas are now able to exercise the full range of powers.
Case Study
HCAs Susan Krikler, Margaret Mascarenhas, Shilpa Shah and Martin Yale, CPS Hertfordshire
Between August and October 2004, undercover police infiltrated a heroin supply network in Hampshire and made a number of test purchases. Ian Harris, HCA CPS Hampshire and Isle of Wight, was allocated to the case. He gave detailed written advice on the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence and indicated which potential suspects should be arrested for which offences. At the police station Ian gave immediate pre-charge advice when the defendants were arrested. Twelve defendants were charged with offences of supplying and being concerned in the supply of heroin. The next morning Ian appeared in the magistrates' court. One of the defendants pleaded guilty at this stage and was committed for sentence. The remaining 11 defendants were committed to the Crown Court for trial after Ian had prepared the committal papers and drafted the indictments. At subsequent Plea and Case Management Hearings at Portsmouth Crown Court, eight defendants pleaded guilty, with the remaining three pleading guilty on the morning of the trial at which Ian appeared as prosecuting counsel. The defendants were sentenced to terms of up to four years' imprisonment. Every hearing at the Crown Court was prosecuted by a CPS HCA, the majority by Ian.
Case Study
CPS London lawyer Michael Mulkerrins made legal history by becoming the first HCA to act as a junior in an Old Bailey murder trial and was the first in-house advocate to support Treasury Counsel. In November 2005, Elliot White posed as a postman to gain access to the Chelsea home of city banker John Monckton. Damien Hanson, armed with a gun and a knife, together with White, burst into the house, stabbing Mr Monckton and his wife and stealing £4,000 of costume jewellery. During the attack Hanson accidentally stabbed White and police traced the convicted drug dealer from the blood left at the scene. White pleaded guilty to robbery, but claimed he did not know Hanson was armed. All support papers for trial were prepared by Michael. He also handled all the advocacy, approximately seven hearings, leading up to the month-long trial. This included applications to present bad character evidence, which led to the jury hearing about Hanson's four previous convictions. In February 2006, Hanson was sentenced to three life sentences for murdering Mr Monckton, attempting to murder his wife and robbery. White was jailed for 18 years for manslaughter, wounding with intent and robbery.
DCW (Designated Caseworker) Conference
Claire Paczko, DCW, CPS Northumbria
In September 2005, the Director told the DCW conference in Grantham: "The time has finally come to give you as DCWs, a freer rein; to let you emerge from behind previous restrictions; to take centre-stage as primary providers of skilled, professional advocacy in magistrates' courts - our providers of choice."
Strengthening Prosecution of Serious, Sensitive and Complex Crime
In preparation for the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) becoming fully operational on 1 April 2006, the CPS restructured its Casework Directorate into three new divisions to deal with counterterrorism, organised crime and specialised crimes. From September 2005, the Organised Crime Division (OCD) assumed responsibility for all new cases referred to the CPS by the National Crime Squad (NCS), as well as taking on some existing NCS cases being dealt with by CPS Areas. A feature of the new arrangements is very early involvement of prosecutors in NCS operations, to ensure that strong cases can be built for prosecution from the outset of an investigation.
OCD has appointed five high-calibre barristers as Senior Crown Advocates to advise and prosecute cases in the Division, ensuring that in-house advocates are conducting the most serious and complex of CPS cases.
Counter Terrorism Division (CTD) deals with all terrorist-related cases throughout England and Wales. Its Specialist Prosecutors also deal with incitement to racial hatred, crimes against humanity and Official Secrets Act cases. The CTD deals with some of the Service's most high profile and challenging work and has had some significant successes since its inception. These have included gaining convictions against Zardad for extra-territorial offences of torture and hostage taking, Andrew Rowe for Terrorism Act offences, and Abu Hamza for solicitation to murder and incitement to racial hatred.
The Special Crime Division (SCD) is responsible for prosecuting and assisting the prosecution of a range of the most sensitive, specialised and novel cases within the Service. The Division prosecutes cases where, for operational and/or resourcing reasons, work needs to be undertaken by the Centre rather than in the Areas. This may include the extradition of a defendant, or where a case is made the subject of an appeal to the House of Lords. The profile of cases conducted by the SCD will inevitably change over time, and work is ongoing to consider devolution of work to Areas in order to achieve the correct balance between local responsibility and those cases that ought properly be dealt with from the centre. Examples of cases currently being handled are - the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, the prosecution for Health and Safety offences in relation to the Ladbroke train crash and the prosecution of Nick Griffin.
Case Study
A complex trail of intelligence and evidence led the NCS from a house in the Netherlands, rented with a false passport, to a yacht in Venezuela. In the Netherlands police seized 200 kilos of amphetamine and 238 kilos of cannabis. But even this paled when, in May 2000, on board a yacht owned by Edward Jarvis and berthed off the Venezuelan coast, 300 kilos of cocaine was found. The following day a further 293 kilos was seized being delivered to the same yacht. Together the NCS and CPS, led by Specialist Prosecutor Ian Richardson of the OCD, conducted a thorough analysis of all the evidence and intelligence and embarked upon a rigorous case building exercise, including cooperation with various interested agencies in the UK and abroad, detailed liaison with many jurisdictions, and complex arguments on abuse of process and jurisdiction. The result of this was that following his release from prison in late 2004 for other offences, Jarvis was arrested and charged in relation to all the drugs seized. In November 2005, at Preston Crown Court, Jarvis was convicted and sentenced to 28 years in prison in relation to the drugs and Venezuela matters, 12 years concurrent for the drugs offences in Holland and a further two years for passport offences.
Gerry Wareham, Unit Head for OCD in York said: "This case typifies the kind of crime SOCA and the OCD were set up to fight. Global criminals impact on the entire international community and require a cooperative international response from criminal justice agencies. This case shows we are ready to meet that challenge."
Case Study
In September 2004, police launched an investigation following the rape and sexual assault of a victim in her own home. Peter Raymond Jarvis became the main suspect, but he fled to Spain after police made some preliminary enquires with him. Initially it was thought he would return to the UK voluntarily, but on 12 June 2005 there was a suggestion that he would move to a country not covered by the European Arrest Warrant, or any other extradition arrangements. The officer in charge contacted Dorset CCP John Revell at his home that evening to ask him to come to the Major Crime Unit in Bournemouth to help. John reviewed all the information and advised there was sufficient evidence to prosecute Jarvis. Shortly before midnight they went to the home of a magistrate so that the Arrest Warrant could be issued. That night John was in continual contact with the police and Rosemary Fernandes, CTD prosecutor. Rosemary prepared the relevant documents for the European Arrest Warrant (a fast track process replacing lengthy extradition procedures in the European Union), which was issued at Bow Street Magistrates Court on the morning of Monday, 13 June. This was immediately sent to Spain, where Jarvis was arrested and returned to the UK. Jarvis was charged with a total of 10 offences including rape, robbery and actual bodily harm. In April 2006, following trial at Bournemouth Crown Court he was convicted of 10 offences and sentenced to concurrent sentences of life for the three rapes, four years for robbery, five years for forcing his victim to engage in sexual activity without consent and 18 months for assault. He received a two year jail term for blackmail, three years for burglary and one year each for theft and attempted theft.
Conference to Fight Human Trafficking Across Europe
The UK hosted the Conference to Fight Human Trafficking Across Europe in October 2005. Crown Prosecutor Glynn Rankin, along with a Metropolitan police colleague, spoke at the conference to explain the UK approach to fighting illegal immigration crime. Glynn said: "Recent successful convictions have shown that we can tackle these large, complex investigations which cross national boundaries and bring to justice the evil people who traffic in human misery - no matter where they are from." During 2005 the CPS has dealt with four human trafficking cases leading to 15 people being convicted.
Conditional Cautioning
Conditional cautions were established by the Criminal Justice Act 2003. In appropriate cases they can be used as a means to divert from court those whose offending is serious enough to warrant prosecution, but who are prepared to admit their offence and agree to undertake rehabilitative or reparative activities as a condition of being cautioned. Unlike the simple caution, the decision whether or not to offer a conditional caution can only be taken by a prosecutor, either as part of the Statutory Charging process or on review of a case charged by the police.
The Conditional Cautioning scheme began to operate in December 2004 on a phased implementation basis. By July 2005 it was operating in selected police divisions in seven force areas in Lancashire,Thames Valley, South Yorkshire,West Mercia, Northumbria,West Midlands and Merseyside (at the North Liverpool Community Justice Centre). Lancashire subsequently expanded the scheme across its whole force area. During the first year of operation, just over 200 conditional cautions were issued.
A preliminary report in November 2005 found that the early implementation stage had been successfully achieved; a fuller report is expected by the end of July 2006. Work is in hand to disseminate the lessons learnt from the best-performing Areas and to embed it in a model informing the national implementation of conditional cautioning, which began on 1 April 2006.
Diversion
The development of Conditional Cautions is closely allied to the wider proposal to promote greater diversion from court by allowing prosecutors to impose penalties on offenders who admit their offences and agree to accept the prosecutor's offer in lieu of conviction. Proposals by the Solicitor General include allowing prosecutors to impose standardised, discounted penalties such as fines, compensation orders, youth referral orders and conditional discharges as convictions. These proposals are being referred to the CJS Review (21st Century Justice or 'Triple S' - Simple Speedy Summary) being conducted by the DCA for further exploratory work during 2006-07. Further information on the Review is on page 30.
Pre-trial Interviews
The piloting of pre-trial witness interviews began in CPS Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside in January 2006. Experienced and specially trained prosecutors now have the opportunity to assess the reliability of, or clarify, a witness's evidence prior to charge or trial. The pilots will run until 30 September 2006 when they will be independently evaluated and a decision will be taken on rollout to the remaining CPS Areas.
Disclosure
Disclosure is the process through which the prosecution reviews and then provides the defence with unused material which might reasonably be considered capable of undermining the case for the prosecution against the accused, or of assisting the case for the accused. The Disclosure Manual was fully revised, extended in scope, and re-published in April 2005 to reflect the prosecution team approach to the disclosure process, moving through investigations, advice and charge, to prosecution. The Manual also contains guidance to deal with the most sensitive and complex disclosure issues arising in serious, organised and cross-border crime. The CPS has contributed extensively to the development of a Judicial Protocol on disclosure and is currently participating in an inter-departmental review of third party material.
Sentencing
In October 2005, the Attorney General published new and detailed guidelines on the acceptance of pleas and the prosecutor's role in the sentencing exercise. The guidelines give direction on how prosecutors should meet the objectives of protecting victims' interests and of securing fairness and transparency in the process. It provides detailed guidance and instructions to prosecutors on how to deal with a basis of plea and sentence indications. It also reiterates the previous advice on explaining reasons for prosecution decisions to victims and taking account of their views. The guidelines also provide formal guidance to prosecutors on dealing with assertions in defence mitigation that are derogatory towards the victim.
The Prosecutor's Pledge was published simultaneously with the new sentencing guidelines. The Pledge sets out 10 standards of service that victims can expect from prosecutors, further information on the Pledge is provided on page 24. All prosecutors have been made aware of the guidelines and the Pledge and should have regard to them during sentencing procedure.
Community Justice
Community justice involves all criminal justice agencies joining with the community to combat the anti-social behaviour and quality of life crime which is an integral element of the Government's 'RESPECT' agenda. The Home Office joined forces with the DCA and the CPS to develop and deliver the first community justice project - the Community Justice Centre, North Liverpool. The Community Justice Court commenced sitting on 9 December 2004 in a specifically-designated courtroom at Liverpool City Magistrates Court. The court moved to the North Liverpool Community Justice Centre in August 2005, housing a courtroom, and a variety of agencies including CPS, police, probation service and youth offending team. The courtroom commenced operations in September 2005 sitting as a magistrates' and youth court and since February 2006 has exercised its Crown Court jurisdiction to hear cases committed for sentence. The Centre operates a multi-agency problem-solving model which involves both proactive work to tackle problem areas identified within the community, and work with individual offenders post-conviction to identify and address the underlying causes of their offending behaviour. The multi-agency team, which includes representatives of Probation Service, Community Psychiatric Services and the City Housing Office, assists the judge post-conviction to identify appropriate community-based sentences, including undertaking unpaid work or attending counselling.
