ABUSE OF PROCESS

CONTENT

The following 20 issues will be considered:

1 – The definition of abuse

2 – Unconscionable delay whereby a fair trial is no longer possible – sometimes referred to as Category 1 cases of abuse

3 – The prosecution seeking to manipulate or misuse the process of the Court so as to deprive the defendant of a protection afforded by the law or to take advantage of a technicality – sometimes referred to as Category 2 cases of abuse

4 – Going back on a promise – an unequivocal assurance that the suspect will be cautioned and then, instead, is charged – the important Case-law in this area

5 – The loss or destruction of evidence whereby a fair trial is no longer possible – the important Case-law in this area

6 – The skeleton argument and the Criminal Procedure Rules 2020 (as amended by the 2021 Rules)

7 – The pleas in bar – ‘Autre-fois Convict’ and the 2020 decision of Regina v Wangige [2020] EWCA Crim 1319

8 – The pleas in bar – ‘Autre-fois Acquit’ and the important decision of The Queen on the Application of O v Stratford Youth Court [2004] EWHC 1553 (Admin)

9 – The acceptance of a caution followed by the issuing of process in relation to a private prosecution for a charge in respect of the same matter – Jones v Whalley [2006] UK HL 41

10 – The acceptance of Fixed Penalty Notices followed by a decision of the Crown Prosecution Service to charge – R v Gore and Maher [2009] EWCA Crim 1424

11 – The murky area of ENTRAPMENT – the leading case of R v Sang [1980] AC 402

12 – The private paying client and the application for a Defendant’s Costs Order where a stay for abuse is ordered – Magistrates Court and Crown Court

13 – Where to have the argument? – Advantages of opting for a summary trial where the offence is either-way

14 – The appellate route where the argument is lost in the Crown Court in relation to ‘a matter on indictment’

15 – Know your law! – Discounting those things which are obviously not an abuse of process because the law permits them!

16 – The interrelationship between an abuse of process argument and Sections 76 and 78 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984

17 – The important case of Christou and Wright [1992] 3 WLR 228 CA – ‘Stardust Jewellers’

18 – Proceedings may be stayed ‘On broader considerations of the integrity of the criminal justice process’– the very important case of R v Latiff [1996] 1 ALL ER 353

19 – The burden of proof in an abuse of process argument

20 – Are the Magistrates entitled to hear the argument in their Court? – Mansfield and the DPP [2021] EWHC 2938 (Admin)

Order here