Chief Crown Prosecutors Blog: by Colin Chapman

Christmas Message - Tuesday 16th December 2008

I'm doing this Blog entry from Budapest in Hungary where I've come for a few days pre- christmas break with Karen and Immy. This is the third Christmas I've known Karen and we're making this pre-Christmas break a bit of a tradition. Two years ago we went to Tallin and last year it was Istanbul.

I'm not sure why, but whilst I was here I thought I'd share with the wider world the Christmas message I sent to the people who work with me in CPS West Mercia. Not sure why but it feels right, so here it is:

It hardly seems possible, but here we are with Christmas almost on us again!

If you are like me, the Christmas period is always one for reflection - reflection about the year gone by and the year to come. My reflections do go wider than work, of course, and, as well as my personal life, I think Christmas is a time when we should all pause for a few moments and think about those that may not be as fortunate as we are.

These may be people who have suffered at the hands of others, and with whom we come into contact as victims and witnesses, but they may also be people who are suffering through ill health, or who have lost loved ones, or their jobs or even their homes. Taking an even wider view, there are those across the world who live in conditions caused by fear, poverty or sickness, which are unimaginable to us.  There are also those who put themselves in personal danger on a daily basis on behalf of the rest of us - and who may actually be doing so as we join our friends and families at Christmas our armed forces, police officers, firemen etc.

I hope that like me, you will take at least a few minutes this Christmas to think about some of these people.

Reflecting on CPS West Mercia, I can only think of mostly very positive things. We have continued to build upon the highly creditable Inspection assessment of late 2007, and improved our performance significantly. We have had some outstanding casework achievements and successes, and conducted many high quality prosecutions. We have undoubtedly improved the focus we place on victims and witnesses, and on our relationships with other agencies, organisations and the public. I have no doubt whatsoever that our profile and reputation for being an excellent local prosecution service is growing all the time and has done so in the last year.

Yes, there have been pressures and there will be more to come. Every organisation has these. However, we have dealt with them openly, constructively, maturely, professionally, and confidently, and have shown that across the CPS West Mercia Area, we are dealing with these together as a team, and in a way that demonstrates that we share the common purpose of being an excellent local prosecution service that is, and is seen to be, fighting crime and fighting for justice on behalf of the people of West Mercia. I am confident that we will continue to do so.

Last Christmas was my first in the CPS West Mercia Area, and I said at the time how pleased I was to be working here as your Chief Crown Prosecutor. Having now spent just over a year working here, I can, this year, passionately and sincerely say how privileged, honoured and proud I am to be working here with you all, and to be achieving what we have set out to achieve.

Everything we have achieved has been achieved by you, and every one of you is crucial in what we do in whatever role you play in our work. I therefore wish to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to you all for your hard work, professionalism, commitment and dedication throughout the year. I am very proud of what you are doing, and very proud to be working with you, and, as we move from 2008 into 2009, I hope that you, too, will do so with an enormous sense of accomplishment and pride in what you have done, and what we continue to do as a team in CPS West Mercia.

It remains for me to wish you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas, and my sincere best wishes for the New Year.

I look forward to continuing to build upon all of this, and to working with you all in 2009.

Christmas - Monday 1 December 2008

Just a short note to reflect the time of year!  Hasn't it come round quickly!  Here we are entering December already.  So how are we doing with the Christmas shopping?  Thanks to a day in Milton Keynes a couple of weeks ago and an evening online, I'm nearly done!  My big dilemma at present is when I'm going to find the time to get up to Northumberland to give my mum and dad their presents.  (They have already given me mine when I visited a couple of months ago).

Today also sees a reduction in VAT to encourage us to spend more money.  I think I've missed out on that one having already bought most of my presents!

Finally, today has also seen the publication of the report into the Baby P case in Haringey.  It's not for me to comment because I do not know the facts or details other than what was reported in the media.  This was, however, a real tragedy which has shocked us all as a society.  Let's hope we will never see this sort of thing again.

Victim Support - Friday 28 November 2008

On Thursday and Friday, I was fully occupied in my role as a national trustee for Victim Support.  The organisation (which is a charity and comes from very humble beginnings of people just simply wanting to help victims of crime) has been going through enormous change in the last two years to make it more effective and provide a better service to victims and witnesses.  A major change has been rolling out nationally an enhanced service to victims, and I am delighted that the roll-out programme has now been completed.

On Thursday, Victim Support had its AGM followed by a trip to Buckingham Palace for the presentation of awards to volunteers who have given up their time to help victims and witnesses.  Princess Anne presented the awards and the event was presented by Fiona Bruce, my favourite newsreader!  My partner, Karen, doesn't believe me when I say every night that Fiona Bruce looks right at me when she is reading the news.  I can now confirm that Fiona looked right at me when I had a brief conversation with her!

Enough flippancy!  The award ceremony was excellent and much appreciated by the volunteers whose efforts had been recognised and appreciated.  I am a big fan of trying to ensure that people are appreciated for what they do, particularly when they go the extra mile to do it, as these volunteers had.  My sincere congratulations to those who won awards, but also to those who were nominated and, indeed, to all other Victim Support and Witness Service volunteers who give their time so selflessly on behalf of others.

The ceremony was followed by a dinner for the Trustees, with the Chief Executive of Victim Support and its executive management team.  Having only been a trustee for one year of a three year period, this day has been the best yet in getting to know more about the organisation.  I am delighted, honoured and proud to be part of it.

Friday, still with Victim Support, and attending the Trustee meeting.  When I was interviewed in order to be nominated (and then elected) as a Trustee, I did say that, if necessary, I would challenge.  At the Board Meeting today, I felt I did just that, albeit, I hope, constructively.  I'm not sure that it went down very well!  However, at the end of the day, my personal test for everything I do is is it the right thing to do? So as long as I'm happy about that I can live with myself.

Before ending on Victim Support who also run the Witness Service volunteers are always required.  So if you want to help people in your community who have suffered at the hands of others, please contact your local Victim Support Office or visit the Victim Support website at www.victimsupport.org.uk.

The Director of Public Prosecutions - Tuesday 25 November 2008

The new Director of Public Prosecutions came to Birmingham to meet all the Chief Crown Prosecutors and Area Business Managers from the West Midlands and also the East Midlands regions.  This is only his 4th week in office and the Director (Keir Starmer) is making quite an effort to get out and about to meet as many of us across the country as he can.

We had a very interesting discussion about a range of topics, including community engagement and community prosecutors, which is a subject about which I am passionate and feel very strongly.  I am proud that the CPS has come such a long way since its early days in 1986 when it was seen to be isolated and introvert, making its decisions in its ivory towers (although I'm not sure ivory is the correct description!).  We are now a much more extrovert and confident organisation and not afraid to say that we can, and should, learn more from talking to the communities we serve and I believe we have certainly started to do this to a much greater extent in the year or so since I have been in West Mercia.

The Director will be following up this trip to Birmingham with a visit to West Mercia itself in the New Year as part of his ongoing dialogue with people across the CPS and we look forward to welcoming him to the Area.

Tuesday 18 November 2008

It's been a very busy two weeks since I last wrote and the blogging activity has taken something of a back seat.

A couple of things have struck me over this period.

First was the saga involving Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand.  I think everyone agreed that what they did was unacceptable and it was right to spark a debate about where the lines of good and bad taste lie, particularly when it comes to TV and radio.  I never watched the Jonathan Ross Show because of him.  I couldn't stand the way the programme was more about him than his guests who were often pretty good and the reason why I did watch it.  I have to say, that sometimes I thought he was tasteless to the point of unacceptability and therefore I'm pleased that the position of the line between good and bad taste may be re-drawn.

There followed this a debate I heard on the radio about swearing and whether or not it is acceptable.  We probably all swear at times but it is when and why we swear that perhaps matters.

I was brought up to have respect for other people and this included not swearing if this was likely to offend or if I didn't know what the reaction might be.  That is why I cannot stand gratuitous swearing either on the street, on trains and buses, and on TV.

I was even brought up to regard the h (where Satan lives) word was not a word to be used in polite conversation, and I was most surprised recently to hear a very well renowned speaker talking on the subject of respect use the h word several times during the course of the speech.  For me, listening, the respect was actually missing at that point.

I'm not sure this is a criminal justice problem, at least in it's entirety.  I don't think any of us would want to start prosecuting and criminalizing everyone who swears!  However, there are offences under the Public Order Act 1986 which deal with words and behaviour which are insulting and abusive so that the criminal law can and does have some role to play in appropriate circumstances.

The other major piece of news recently was the very tragic death of Baby P and the prosecution which successfully concluded recently.  I'm not going to say anything about the case itself and Haringey Council are still subject to an inspection requested by the Government.  Of course, we all hope that lessons will be learned and this will never happen again.

The interest, however, for me was in the link between this and the elderly abuse we heard about at our recent conference.  Those present at that conference, including the professionals concerned, were very concerned that there is a huge focus of activity procedure and policies in place for children and even abuse, neglect and offending against animals.  They point out that there is, rightly, public outrage when children or animals suffer abuse but that there is not the same outrage nor are the same policies, practice, and procedures in place when it comes to elderly abuse.  I'm sure none of us wants to see another Baby P when it comes to the death of an elderly person.  I fear from what I have heard recently that the likelihood of this is greater than we might think.

Thursday 6 November 2008

Another day of learning more about disadvantaged people in our society with a visit to the Vale of Evesham Special School for pupils with learning difficulties and autism.

I took with me a group of prosecutors, caseworkers and witness care officers from the CPS and was delighted that we could be joined by two police officers and two Magistrates.

The morning, which included a tour of the school and talking to some of the pupils in their classrooms, gave us all a great insight into the problems and issues faced by the pupils, and their teachers and carers, as they all learn the skills required to enable them to be properly included in our society.

Both yesterday and today, demonstrated to me that it can be very easy for us to forget that there are people within our society who can be very vulnerable in many different ways, and as a result can be easily excluded from our society, which, in turn, makes them even more vulnerable.

As prosecutors, we must be constantly aware of how this vulnerability can be exploited and be ready and determined to prosecute cases when they come to us.  More, we must prosecute effectively in order to generate confidence so that these types of crime are reported more frequently so that messages can be sent out that they will not be tolerated.

Too often, I fear, they are and we as prosecutors must accept our role in helping to stamp out such toleration.

Wednesday 5 November 2008

Today, CPS West Mercia hosted the local launch of the CPS Crimes Against Older People Policy in Bromsgrove.  This policy and the guidance that goes with it does what it says on the tin i.e., sets out how we will deal with crimes against older people, and is designed to contribute to making older people and their families more confident that they will be properly supported and cared for if they report crimes against them.

We had some excellent speakers from Help the Aged, Age Concern and Action on Elder Abuse who spoke passionately about the need for greater awareness and understanding about the abuse that can, and is, suffered by older people.  Sometimes, indeed often, perpetrated by those in the families or those entrusted with their care.  It was pretty frightening stuff and clearly an aspect of our society which has yet to receive the same degree of attention that issues like domestic abuse and child abuse get now.

I was honoured to chair such a successful conference and hope it is a small step towards enabling us all to deal with this issue more effectively.

Our policy and guidance to lawyers is available through our website.

Monday 27 October 2008

Well the clocks have gone back and resulted in a most beautiful autumn morning with the sun shining and the autumn colours looking absolutely beautiful!  But it will be dark by 4.00 pm!!!

Wednesday 22 October 2008

I decided to try and make my blog entries slightly shorter and more focussed, otherwise I'll never find time to write them!

Today, I held my monthly meeting with my management team which included the first of a series of sessions in which we are going to talk to and learn more about the different communities in West Mercia.

Today we had two people to talk to us about the gay community and some of the prejudices that still remain and are still evident against the gay community.  I was slightly shocked to be asked if verbal abuse against gay people is a criminal offence.  Of course it is and it should be reported to the police and if there is enough admissible evidence we will prosecute.  You will see elsewhere on this website our policy on prosecuting cases of homophobic and transphobic crime.

We want to play our part in cutting out this type of prejudice.  I know there are difficulties which can hinder victims in coming forward but we can help overcome some of these.  We need to have cases reported to us so we can prosecute them and deliver the message that society will not tolerate this sort of discrimination.  Last year in West Mercia we prosecuted 16 cases!  Is that the extent of this type of offending here?

I'm not sure how short and focussed that was, but I hate this, and any type of hate crime, and I could go on at length about it.  I want the CPS to help do something about it.

Monday 20 October 2008

Today is the first day of Inside Justice Week 2008.  Inside Justice Week is now an annual event during which the criminal justice agencies, working together through the Local Criminal Justice Board, take the opportunity of trying to explain their work and more about the criminal justice system to the public.  The more the public are aware of how the criminal justice system works then the greater will be their confidence in it and their feelings of safety and security as they go about their daily lives.

As the Chief Crown Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service in West Mercia, I am a member of West Mercia's Criminal Justice Board and I also lead for the Board on issues affecting the confidence of the people of West Mercia in its local criminal justice system.  I was therefore heavily involved in deciding how West Mercia's Board would approach Inside Justice Week.  When I talk to members of the public, either my own friends or through my work, it is frequently the issue of sentencing that comes up in our conversations.  I am often asked why do more criminals not go straight to prison, why is prison such a holiday camp, why do so many criminals receive community service and why is community service such an easy option?

Those of us who work in the criminal justice system feel that sometimes the public don't always understand the reasons for prison sentences, and community punishments, nor do they understand the realities behind these sentences.  For Inside Justice Week this year, therefore, we decided to try and explain and explore some of these misconceptions about sentencing. 

Firstly, prison. In a sense, the public has what it wants in that the number of prison places at present is at an all time high and more prison places are being planned and built for the future.  I don't think there is anyone either inside the system or outside who thinks that prison is not the right place for serious offences.  I have visited prisons and can assure you that they are not pleasant places, not holiday camps.  Indeed, when the prison gates slam behind you and you know that you are not a free person anymore, that is only the beginning of an experience that is not going to be pleasant.

Secondly, community punishments.  Those of us who are on the Local Criminal Justice Board who deal with offenders after they have been sentenced (ie the Probation Service and Youth Offending Service) believe passionately that short term prison sentences (as opposed to longer sentences for serious offences) do not work in that they give offenders no opportunities to re-adjust their lives so that they will not commit offences again.  Indeed, they argue that short term prison sentences are more likely to lead to re-offending than community punishments.

I decided to look into this a little further and to find out what it was like to do unpaid community work along with real offenders on a real unpaid work party.  Today I set out on a cold, wet, miserable morning to join a group of 7 offenders undertaking work at the Countryside Park just outside Worcester.  I spent the morning working with 7 offenders whose offences were assault, drug dealing and theft.  I noted that of those convicted of assault, alcohol was involved.

The work we had to do this morning was tidying up the flower beds and gardens near to the car park in the Countryside Park.  This is not something that I enjoy at all, being a person who has recently gravelled his whole garden in order to avoid this type of work!  This brought home to me that the type of unpaid work that you get is not always something you want to do.

I spent the morning with these guys who were quite open with me and happy to talk about their lives, their offences and, importantly, their futures.  What struck me was that they were actually thinking about their futures.  They were using the time while they were serving their community punishment to think about their future and how they would avoid offending again.  The time was actually being used for constructive reflection and planning.

I would like to pay tribute to Will, our Supervisor, for the day.  He not only had the task of keeping us all working and motivated but he was the constant source of advice and encouragement to the guys who talked to him about some of the problems they may be facing in their lives.

As ever, undertaking an experience is much better than reading about it.  I was really pleased I did this few hours unpaid work because I learned a lot about why community sentences might be much more effective than prison sentences.  So, I believe our approach to Inside Justice Week is the right one and I hope over the next few days we will cause a few more people to stop and think about the options open to us as a society when punishing offenders.

Monday 13th October 2008

Another weekend over but, for me, a special one because yesterday was my birthday, although I'm not going to publicly announce which one.  Special thanks, however, to my partner and my sons for making it a very enjoyable one!

Today, however, was back to work and a visit to Birmingham to attend the West Midlands Group Community Involvement Panel, which is yet another way the CPS consults and engages with the communities it serves.

The CPS is divided into 42 Areas, each with its own Chief Crown Prosecutor.  Additionally, however, we are placed into Groups so that we can support each other in improving performance and have good practice.  CPS West Mercia is part of the West Midlands Group which is comprised of the West Midlands, West Mercia, Staffordshire and Warwickshire Areas.

The Community Involvement Panel is another group of community representatives who are prepared to meet with us and provide advice and feedback on our policies and practices.  The idea is that, as a result, we become better at what we do, serve the public better, and improve public confidence.  I have taken on the role of Group Lead on Confidence issues and therefore attended in my dual role of Confidence Lead for the Group as well as Chief Crown Prosecutor for West Mercia.

The Panel (CIP) is in its early stages and has only met once before today.  At its earlier meeting, the Panel gave us feedback about raising awareness of our role in the criminal justice system (CJS) and as a result we are in the process of producing a leaflet to help explain our role.  This will be published soon.

The theme of today's meeting was the recently published CPS Good Practice Guide to Prosecuting Complex Gun and Gang Related Crime an excellent and topical guide which has application to other types of prosecutions.  We had an excellent discussion around gun crime and gang culture and the involvement of people who have some real knowledge of these issues was really useful.  It certainly helped my understanding of the issues even though they are not as relevant to West Mercia as they are to Birmingham itself.

I was struck by the contribution of one panel member who explained that the youth of (say) 14 or 15 years who get involved in gun crime today by, for instance, carrying a gun (or a knife) around, may be the 16 or 17 year old who in two years time ends up pulling the trigger (or using the knife) to kill someone.  It is really important that we get home this message and do everything we can as a society (and as a CJS) to educate our young people about the paths they may be taking and the consequences that they may be leading themselves to.  For those already involved, we need to provide strategies and advice to help them remove themselves from the situations.  They may find themselves in and it was interesting to note that prosecutions and anti-social behaviour orders at an early stage may help some to do this.  Indeed they could be life-savers.

The Good Practice Guide is available on the CPS website and I will arrange for it (or a link) to be placed on our local site so that people in West Mercia can have access to it.

Friday 10th October 2008

In my last Blog entry, I mentioned the DPPs contribution over the last 5 years to making the CPS more open and accountable to victims, witnesses, and the public for our decisions.

One of the ways we have done this is by establishing Hate Crime Scrutiny Panels (HCSP).  These are panels which comprise members of the community and their representatives, who join us on a regular basis to consider in depth real cases and to help us learn lessons from those cases so that we can improve the way we deal with cases in the future.

The purpose of these panels is to:-

• improve the way we prosecute hate crime cases;
• build and maintain community confidence in our handling of these cases;
• increase the willingness of members of the public to report these cases either as victims or witnesses;
• ensure wider awareness of the role of the CPS in bringing perpetrators of hate crime to justice.

Today, we held our Autumn Hate Crime Scrutiny Panel and looked at two cases in depth.  I'm not going to go into the details of these cases but both demonstrated how accurate is the old adage that justice delayed is justice denied.  As a result of the panel discussion, on this and other points, we will work closely with the police to ensure that we do everything we can to prioritise and speed up the investigation and prosecution of these cases.

Our Hate Crime Scrutiny Panel has, so far, only looked at cases of racially or religiously aggravated offences, but when we meet next, in December, we are looking to extend the remit of the panel to homophobic and disability cases.  We are still looking for panel members to assist in our scrutiny of these cases.  So if anyone reading this wishes to participate then please get in touch with our Communications & Community Engagement Manager, Lynda Jackson, who will assist.

Early next year, we will be creating a Violence Against Women Scrutiny Panel which in the first instance will be helping us improve how we prosecute cases of domestic abuse.  Again, anyone interested, please get in touch.

I am personally highly committed to, and highly motivated by, the idea that members of the community can help us improve the service we provide by examining real cases, exploring how we might do better, and then acting upon that feedback.  I have really enjoyed working with the Panel and see this work as one of the high points of my job.  I hope some of you will volunteer to help us as we extend the work of our Panels.

Thursday 9th October 2008

Despite my best intentions, I have not had the opportunity in the last two weeks or so to place anything else on my Blog.  It has been an extremely busy two weeks for a number of reasons.  One of those is that I have been considering whether or not there should be any criminal prosecution arising out of the very tragic deaths earlier this year of Heather Wardle and James Hughes in the Redditch area.  This case attracted a great deal of publicity at the time and resulted in a fairly lengthy and comprehensive police investigation which I have been considering in the last few weeks.  I will not announce my decision on this Blog today because I have today just informed the police and, through them, the families involved.  The decision will be announced in the near future.

One of the key things that has happened in the last two weeks has been two events to mark the departure from the Crown Prosecution Service of Sir Ken Macdonald QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).   The DPP is the head of the Crown Prosecution Service and the person to whom I am accountable for the cases which arise in the West Mercia Area.  Sir Ken has been with the Service as the DPP for 5 years and, therefore, his departure has inevitably led us all to reflect on how the Service has done in those 5 years. 

Of you and, indeed, the view of many commentators is that the Service has progressed enormously in those 5 years.  We have:-

• taken over the responsibility from the police for the charging decision in all but the most minor cases;
• placed our prosecutors in police stations in order to work in partnership with the police to build cases before charging decisions are made;
• introduced joint CPS and police Witness Care Units to better support victims and witnesses when they have to come to court to give evidence;
• increased the number of in-house advocates presenting our cases in the Crown Court;
• developed a much greater openness and transparency with the media and the public through our media work and our community engagement activities.

Sir Ken has always been passionate about the need for due process and a fair trial for both victims and defendants and also about prosecutors providing better information to victims and witnesses and explaining our decisions to them.

In all of these respects we have come a long way in the last 5 years and much of this has been due to the inspirational leadership which Sir Ken has shown.

In looking for other highlights of the last 2 weeks, I am going to turn to the TV on Sunday night when the dramatisation of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles.  Wasn't this an extremely sad and tragic ending to the story.  I recall reading the book when I was at school and not enjoying it at all but then that might have been down to my teacher at the time!  I was struck in watching the series by how attitudes have changed both with regard to men and to women and their positions in society but that some of the power and control that we saw being exercised in that story is still existent in some of the cases that we see when dealing with domestic abuse.  Sometimes, despite progress, nothing changes.

And, a final word about progress.  I saw a presentation recently when we, as a Service were looking towards the future and towards the future 2020.  We had an excellent presentation from a Speaker from BT who really struck a note with me when he described that technology and the availability of greater amounts of information through technology (eg the internet) has made us all dumber and dumber!  In the time that it has taken me to write this Blog, and for you to read it, the amount of information that has become available is much more than either you or I can read or absorb.  Therefore in the proportion of information that we now hold in our brains is a smaller proportion that it was 20 minutes ago.  We are therefore dumber!  An interesting thought.

Captains Blog Tuesday 23rd September 2008

I'm not a Trekkie but I always loved those moments when Captain Kirk used to update his diary on the Starship Enterprise with the words Captains Log, star date . So here I am, some 30 years later, in charge of the Crown Prosecution Service in West Mercia, and writing my first entry for my own Blog!

I can hardly saying that I am going boldly where no man has gone before. I looked up the word blog before writing this and discovered that as of December 2007 there is a blog search engine which was tracking more than 112 million blogs! Accompanying this fascinating statistic was the comment that bloggers usually take great pride in their blogs even if they are never read by anyone but themselves!

I don't know where this blog is going and whether it will be read by anyone but me! I don't know how frequently I'll have the time or the subject matter to add to it but I'm a great believer in I've started so I'll finish so we'll see where we go. If I'm lucky enough to have anyone read this out of the millions of blogs they have to choose from, I hope you'll reply or use the blog to raise comments or concerns with me.

So why try the blog? Well, I'm passionate about the work that I do as a prosecutor, but I'm equally passionate that the Crown Prosecution Service (I'll shorten it to CPS from now on) and the whole of the criminal justice system (CJS) should be doing more to explain what we do, how we do it, and how successful we are in doing it to the public and the communities we serve. So that's part of it. Equally important, however, we must listen to, hear, act upon and be responsive to the things that concern the public and our communities. I am here to fight crime and fight for justice for the people of West Mercia. I want to explain what I am doing and also hear from you what I can do more of, or better.

So, why the blog?  Well, its another way of trying to reach out to give messages and to receive feedback. It's something that hasn't been tried before, and if you are reading this, then you are reading the first ever blog by a Chief Crown Prosecutor in this country, and as far as I'm aware by anyone from a CJS agency other than the police. You may be part of history in the making!

CPS West Mercia is also launching its own local website today. I've been embarrassed for a long time about the content of CPS local websites. Although you can get national information from our national website, if you click on the local links which I think I would almost certainly do if I was looking in the material has been sadly lacking. So we're trying to change that too, and I hope you'll look in there to see what we are doing here in West Mercia.

So, there it is. I hope to hear from any of you out there who read this, because you may help determine where this, and CPS West Mercia, goes in the future!

You can contact me by email.