Part-Heard Trial

For the first time in many a year I was involved in a part-heard trial recently.

Part-heard trials, where the trial unexpectedly spills into a second day, are not ideal, particularly when you have a bench of three Magistrates who might not have the same availability. That said, part-heard is probably preferable to having to start the trial again from scratch.

The trial involved a man accused of punching another after a night on the town.

As is often the case the start of the afternoon trial was delayed whilst the prosecutor, an agent acting for the Crown Prosecution Service, made some final enquiries with her substantive CPS colleagues. This happens quite frequently, as an agent does not have the same level of information or discretion that a regular CPS prosecutor does. An agent can just be handed the IDPC pack a few hours beforehand and have to run with it, irrespective of their view on the evidential or public interest merits of the case.

The defendant elected to give live evidence from the witness box, but in doing so said something the prosecutor knew to be inaccurate - specifically that he was a peaceful man who would never dream of assaulting anyone, even though the prosecutor knew he had a previous conviction for just that. Cue furtive glances between the advocates and request that the bench retired whilst they thrashed out the finer details of the defendant's amnesia.

After what seemed like an hour of discussion, with the clock ticking ever onwards, we got word from our Legal Advisor that the prosecutor was going to have to make further enquiries with the CPS about how to proceed. Of course the CPS being what it is, you can never get through the right person at the right time when a trial is in progress, so could we please conclude the trial on a later date?

Given the circumstances we were agreeable, but trying to choreograph the diaries of all concerned could be a potential nightmare. Fortunately, with a bit of arm twisting, we managed to get a mutually convenient date only a couple of weeks later. The Legal Advisor took our notes for safe keeping and we agreed to meet him half an hour before the trial resumed so that we had a chance to refresh our memories.

On entering the courtroom we immediately asked for the prosecutor to play the CCTV footage again, so that it rekindled our earlier memories of it. The defence advocate asked that we disregard the controversial comment of her client, which we confirmed that we would. The trial then proceeded and within the space of an hour the defendant had been convicted of the section 39 assault. We were also in a position to sentence the defendant there and then, without needing the assistance of the probation service.

Notwithstanding the fact it took more than a week, the trial process worked pretty smoothly. I'd still prefer not to have another part-heard one anytime soon.