Under laws created to ensure everyone gets a fair trial, the police have a duty to give all evidence connected to a case to the Crown Prosecution Service who must “disclose” anything of relevance to the defence team. Magistrates were told that the officer who was the appointed “disclosure officer” was also the officer who said he had been threatened. Mervyn Mandell, chairman of the magistrates’ bench, said they were “troubled” to hear about the arrangement – a potential conflict of interests – which they said in their judgement “went against Attorney General guidelines”. Camden police were at “at the very least at serious fault”, he added. Police chiefs said yesterday (Wednesday) that officers taking on the two roles was “normal practice”.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 11:15:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015