The Defence Brief

One of the basic principles of the English & Welsh Criminal Justice System is that it is an adversarial process.   People like to think that this is somehow different to the rest of Europe but that isn’t true.   They do have slightly different system but when somebody says “I am not guilty” then they pretty much all adopt an adversarial process that we would recognise.   Anyway, aside about Europe over. Royal Courts of Justice Because the system is adversarial it is for the prosecution to prove the allegation they make against the defendant so that the jury or magistrates are sure that the defendant is guilty.   This requires the prosecution to produce evidence of the defendant’s guilty that the defendant can either accept or challenge. When a defendant pleads guilty he or she is accepting the prosecution case against him in its entirety, unless he puts forward a basis of plea setting out that he is guilty but on different facts to those alleged ...

A while ago I wrote about Claire's Law (opens in new window), which allows a woman (in the majority of cases I suspect) to enquire of the police about their partners criminal record if the woman or others have concerns about the new boyfriend. In reply, Anonymous wrote this: "Abusers can convince you that it was a one off and blame it on the alcohol. They might even put friends and family reassure you that it was out of character. People do not take DV as seriously as they supposed to. That new law can be a life savior. I don't agree that someone has to go through the police to check it. I think it should be public record. "  First, I agree about the manipulation he or she mentions.  It can be quite astounding what some of these people can make others believe.  Many years ago I was junior counsel in a trial where the defendant had convinced ALL of the parents on his street to allow him to take "modelling" photographs of their teenage daughters.  Ne...