CRIMINAL LITIGATION

The defendant was remanded in custody and so failed to attend his trial for another offence, of which he was convicted in his absence. He applied under the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980, s 142(1) to rescind his conviction and re-open the trial.

HELD the magistrates’ court had placed substantially too much weight on the defendant’s failure to communicate with the court from prison. The interests of justice clearly required the rescission of the claimant’s conviction and a re-trial in his presence.