Human rights

The fact that incriminating statements were made without access to a lawyer did not of itself mean that the rights of the defence were irretrievably prejudiced. The correct starting point, when considering whether the person’s rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention) had been breached, was to identify the moment as from which he was charged for the purposes of Art 6(1) of the Convention.

The test was whether the situation of the individual was substantially affected. His position would have been substantially affected as soon as the suspicion against him was being seriously investigated and the prosecution case compiled. The moment at which the individual was no longer a potential witness but had become a suspect provided as good a guide as any as to when he should be taken to have been charged for the purposes of Art 6(1). Any questioning of an individual who had been detained in custody by persons who