Mr S was due to stand trial this week on a serious charge of assault. The incident took place in a shop with at least 7 CCTV cameras. An application was made for the case to be thrown out due to "catastrophic failures" in the police investigation. This is a non-verbatim extract of Her Honour Judge Sullivan's ruling:
"The prosecution contend that there is no evidence to show the area would have been covered but equally there is no evidence to gainsay the defence case. Accordingly the defence have shown on a balance of probabilities that the loss of this material will cause serious prejudice to the defence case which is not curable by the trial process itself. The prosecution are under a duty to retain and disclose this information and they are therefore in breach.
These errors were compounded by further problems. The failure to retain the CCTV of the subsequent assault with its potential audio track. The defence say the timing is crucial as it was only once the police had been called that the allegation of assault was made. The failure to properly store the evidential swabs from both [the complainant] and from the defendant. The swabs from the defendant were incorrectly stored which negated their evidential value. The failure to take and record relevant information from others at the scene including those working in the store and the evidence from the friends of [the complainant] in respect of evidence of first complaint, and also the failure to speak to the owner of the shop in regards to the location and number and coverage of the cameras. All of these further failures individually could be dealt with within the trial process but the cumulative effect of these has led, as the defence contend, to serious fault on behalf of the prosecution.
Therefore these are all reason why I view this as an exceptional case where a stay is the only appropriate remedy."]
Charlene Sumnall of 5 Paper Buildings was instructed and argued this case over two days including cross-examination of the police officer in charge of the investigation.
