Recent Achievements

Particular cases of interest include:

  • On the 25th November the victim was subject to a house burglary, where a substantial amount of property was stolen.  Peter Thomas, aged 32, was later traced forensically to the scene and caught red handed trying to dispose of stolen property at a local pawn shop. Kevin Jones, Crown Advocate, worked closely with the police to use hidden assets legislation to obtain a hidden assets order at Shrewsbury Crown court on the 19th April 2012 for the sum of £68,900. The defendant will serve 18 months imprisonment if the order is not discharged. This was an excellent example of the Prosecution using a variety of measures to prevent criminals benefitting from their criminal conduct.
  • George Lord, now aged 79, had held several positions of trust including church leader and leader of County Council. One victim reported sexual abuse from 30 years ago, connected with his role in the church - she was a child at the time and the other was on work experience at the Council in 2010.  The sexual abuse ranged from inappropriate touching to having one of his victims perform oral sex on him. The defendant was subject to a trial on the 2010 matter and pleaded guilty to the historic abuse.  He was sentenced to four years imprisonment. Sector Crown Prosecutor David Elliott said: "This is a good result of an offender being brought to justice for abusing his position of trust and I must praise Mary Wallace, Charging Lawyer, who provided very thorough charging decisions in this case, which attracted a good deal of press interest as Lord was the former leader of Worcestershire County Council and Elaine Naughton, Paralegal Officer, who worked with Mary and trial Counsel to ensure timely preparation of the cases which resulted in a conviction in respect of one victim and a later guilty plea in respect of the other."
  • The victim and the defendant, Karen Colley, aged 48, were in a stormy and drink fuelled relationship. Matters came to a head on the 5th October 2010 when  the defendant, under the influence of alcohol, drove a car at speed at the victim hitting him with the vehicle before he was thrown from the  exterior of the car. She then deliberately drove over the victim causing him serious injuries which proved fatal. The defendant was convicted after trial and sentenced to nine years imprisonment for manslaughter on the 20 April 2012. This was a serious case involving a male victim of domestic abuse and the sentence in this case was a positive outcome for the Crown and most importantly for the victim's family. Both Samantha Dixon, Senior Crown Prosecutor and Elaine Naughton, Paralegal Officer, were praised for their hard work to ensure that the case was trial ready. Both attended conferences, site visits and met the deceased's family at court for trial.
  • The complainant was out in Bridgnorth on Friday 29th July 2011 when she suddenly heard footsteps behind her. She turned to see a male who reached around and placed his hand over her mouth. The complainant attempted to break free of his grasp. The offender became angry and started to assault the complainant. He repeatedly punched her to her head and face, smashing her head into the pavement until the complainant was slipping in and out of consciousness. The victim was left disorientated and found by a member of the public who called an ambulance. The victim suffered a host of injuries, her body being covered in bruises, cuts, grazes. She received two black eyes and a wound to the back of her head requiring stitches. This was a stranger attack, but the complainant was later able to identify the Mathew Atkins, aged 25, in a formal identification procedures. Max Bennett, Sector Crown Prosecutor, said; "This was an excellent result in a case involving violence against women. The court's sentence reflects the seriousness of offending in this manner and should act as a deterrent. The result followed a great work by the three members of the Shropshire team, Nick Hughes, Senior Crown Prosecutor, Tracey Scott, Caseworker and Phil Beardwell, Crown Advocate, who worked with the police to bring the defendant to justice." The defendant was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, to serve a minimum of nine years with extended supervision.

 

Home » Southern Sector

West Midlands CPS - Southern Sector

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the main prosecuting authority in England and Wales. In our daily operations we work in partnership with all the agencies in the criminal justice system. We work especially closely with the police, although we are independent of them.

The Southern Sector of the West Midlands CPS Area deals with CPS cases arising in the West Mercia Police area, i.e. the counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire, which is the fourth largest geographical police force area in England and Wales.  This large rural area with urban centres borders on the West Midlands, and a wide variety of casework arises from this mix.

Our offices are in Droitwich Spa and Shrewsbury, and deal with cases in the magistrates courts at Worcester, Redditch, Kidderminster, Hereford, Telford and Shrewsbury, and the Crown Courts at Worcester, Hereford and Shrewsbury.  We also deal with some cases in the Crown Courts at Birmingham, Stafford and Wolverhampton.

Nationally, the CPS provides the police with advice on charging, which in many cases can be appropriately given by telephone and email. In addition to a service at nights and weekends [CPS Direct] there are a number of Daytime Charging Units around the country, which provide advice to several police forces.  One such Daytime Charging Unit is based at Shrewsbury, from where advice is given to officers in the West Mercia, West Midlands, Staffordshire and Warwickshire police forces.

Our teams are made up of administrative staff, Paralegal Assistants, Paralegal Officers and Crown Prosecutors. Our Crown Advocates prepare and prosecute the more serious criminal cases in the Crown Court.  We also have a Public Protection Unit dedicated to dealing with allegations of rape, serious sexual offences, domestic homicide and serious domestic abuse. 

We aim to provide a high quality service to our criminal justice partners and to the public, victims, and witnesses, by preparing court cases promptly and thoroughly and prosecuting them fairly and firmly. 

We provide early advice to the police in the most serious of cases on evidence gathering as well as making the charging decision, preparing the cases for trial and prosecuting the cases at court. 

Following Area restructuring in the summer of 2011, the Sector is working hard to streamline its processes to ensure that we deliver good quality casework as effectively as possible.

The Shropshire office commenced a short pilot scheme working with the West Mercia Police to transfer guilty plea cases digitally rather than relying on traditional paper files.  The pilot commenced in October 2011. Cases from Telford were sent to us via secure email and after a three-week period, all of the anticipated guilty plea files became paperless.  In November 2011, three cases were presented to Telford Magistrates Court via a laptop and later that month, cases were presented digitally.  The digital, paperless, anticipated guilty plea files system is now being extended across the whole of the Sector.  In December 2011, a further pilot will commence in Shropshire dealing with anticipated not guilty pleas, and this will later be taken up at our Droitwich office.  These advances are in line with a national CPS goal of handling and presenting the great majority of our cases digitally rather than using paper.

The Sector has a Violence Against Women Scrutiny Panel and a Hate Crime Scrutiny Panel, at which interested community representatives meet to examine samples of our cases and consider how our performance could be improved.

Each of the Panels has expressed the view that over the three years of their existence, they have seen the CPS listen to their views, receive and pass on lessons learned and feedback, and improved service delivery as a result.  Examples include successful negotiations with the Resident Judge on witness care issues at the Crown Court; a letter of introduction from CPS lawyers to rape victims; and increased use of s146 CJA 2003 by the Courts (relating to an enhanced sentence for offenders convicted of hate crimes).

We have also prosecuted a number of murder cases using our own CPS Crown Advocates either as lead advocate or junior advocate.  For example, we obtained convictions in the case of a defendant for the murder and attempted murder of his two children and convictions in the case of a number of defendants for offences of armed robbery and fraud.  We prosecute many of the rape and complex sexual abuse cases using our own specialist Crown Advocates where possible. 

Senior Management Team

There are several levels of management in our offices.  The most senior posts are held by the following.

Suzanne Llewellyn, Acting Senior Sector Crown Prosecutor, West Midlands CPS Southern Sector

Suzanne LlewellynSuzanne commenced her career at West Midlands CPS in 1991. In 2001 she transferred to West Mercia CPS where she introduced statutory charging.

She qualified as a Higher Court Advocate in 2004 and undertook regular Advocacy at both the magistrates and Crown Courts.

Since 2010, Suzanne has been the West Midlands Regional Lead for Violence Against Women and has most recently rolled out an Area Strategy to establish Specialist Public Protection Units based at Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham and Droitwich. These Units work collaboratively with the police and voluntary sector victim support agencies to enhance victim and witness care.  

She has been involved in a rolling programme of training to criminal justice partners, the Violence Against Women Scrutiny Panels and numerous community forums.

Suzanne is also currently Acting Sector District Crown Prosecutor for Eastern Sector, Coventry and Warwickshire, and retains her lead thematic role for Violence Against Women for the West Midlands Area.

David Elliott, Sector Crown Prosecutor, Worcestershire and Herefordshire Crown Court Team

David ElliottDavid was born on Tyneside but moved to Worcestershire as a teenager.  He joined the CPS in Thames Valley and returned to West Mercia in 2003.  He has experience of prosecuting cases across the whole range of work we cover and is a Higher Courts Advocate a youth and rape specialist prosecutor. 

 

 

Gill Casey, Sector Crown Prosecutor, Worcestershire and Herefordshire Magistrates' Courts Team

Gill CaseyGill is originally from Oldham who came to the Midlands initially to study. She was admitted as a solicitor in 1988 and worked initially as a court clerk at Birmingham Magistrates' Courts for five years before joining CPS in 1990. She has been managing for 10 years, with experience in magistrates court and Crown Court Teams in Birmingham and the Black Country before coming to work at Droitwich in 2011.

 

Max Bennett, Sector Crown Prosecutor, Shropshire Combined Unit

Max BennettMax was awarded Higher Court Rights (Criminal) when a solicitor in private practice, in 2000, conducting a number of jury trials. In 2003 he joined the CPS and he became a CPS Higher Court Advocate in 2004. Max became the first Higher Court Advocate to prosecute a murder case. He was promoted in 2008 and became the District Crown Prosecutor in charge of CPS Herefordshire. In 2010 he moved to Shropshire, and is now the head of CPS Shropshire Combined Unit (Crown and magistrates court).