Stop delaying justice is going too far
At the start of 2012, the Magistrates Association began a campaign called "Stop Delaying Justice", I wrote about it at the time . Yesterday I was in court acting as duty solicitor when I was faced with a young man who had allegedly committed an offence and was being prosecuted by the Probation Service - the offence was failing to comply with a Supervision Notice, which is a three month licence package given to offenders under 22-years of age who are released from custody. It is punishable with a prison sentence and, in this case, the Probation Service made it clear that they were asking for the maximum prison sentence to be imposed. I won't go into the exact nature of the alleged breach of the Notice beyond saying that much of it was highly questionable and when I did question it a large chunk of the allegations was withdrawn almost immediately. The probation prosecutor wanted to rush straight into a trial there and then. I politely asked how she intended to prove...