CRIMINAL LITIGATION

Without an indictment there cannot be a valid trial and, on the express language of the Administration of Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1933, s 2(1) the only step which changes a draft indictment into an indictment is the signing of it by the proper officer of the court.

Accordingly, that step is indispensable, and R v Morais [1988] 3 All ER 161 was correctly decided. There is no basis upon which the court in R v Ashton [2007] All ER (D) 19 (Feb) could properly depart from Morais, which was clearly binding on it. In the present case, the appellants had been arraigned and tried without a valid indictment; the addition of a signature at a very late stage could not “throw a blanket of legality over the invalid proceedings already conducted”.

Lord Bingham (para 20) added that the decisions in R v Sekhon[2006] 1 AC 368 and R v Soneji [2005] 4 All ER 321 are valuable and salutary, but the effect of the sea change which they wrought has been exaggerated and they do not warrant a wholesale jettisoning of all rules affecting procedure, irrespective of their legal effect.