header-logo header-logo

Speaking out on collapsed trials

29 June 2018 / Jon Robins
Issue: 7800 / Categories: Opinion , Criminal
printer mail-detail
nlj_7800_robins

Jon Robins asks whether the CPS is telling us all it knows about disclosure failures

Earlier this year the outgoing Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if it was possible that there were people in prison today because of disclosure failures. Apparently, not. ‘I don’t think so because what these cases show is that when we take a case through to trial there are various safeguards in place, not least of which is the defence indicating what their defence is going to be,’ Alison Saunders replied.

As reported in NLJ (see ‘Nightmare on Disclosure Street’, NLJ 16 March 2018, p22), such assurance in the face of a stream of collapsed trials was greeted with scepticism and some ridicule. 

In an appearance before the House of Common’s Justice Committee this month, the DPP retreated from such a claim. ‘Some people have been and they have been referred to the Criminal Cases Review Commission and some people we have referred to the Commission,’

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
back-to-top-scroll