WHEN IN ROME? MACCLESFIELD? DO AS THE TURKISH

It is of no great surprise when visual media covering visits of female  royalty or lesser supposed personalities or leaders to middle eastern countries publish images of said visitors dressed in such a manner that we are told they are paying respect to the mores of those host countries.  These outward manifestations of "respect" would often include the wearing of head coverings of a form associated with the Muslim religion and or trousers when that form of dress would be unusual in a western setting.  Most observers would not in any way offer criticism.  For mere mortals visiting such countries following local modesty rules is more than just out of politeness or respect it is an absolute necessity to avoid falling foul of local gendarmerie and a possible jail sentence or forced deportation. For visitors to this country or immigrants the British and especially Londoners are and have always been tolerant to  seeing people attired in all manner of national costumes from the lavish colours of the silk dresses of Nigerians to the burka of Afghans and others.  In similar fashion shisha cafes, almost unknown in Britain 20 years ago, are now commonplace in many towns and cities. Provided they are open in line with current regulations and the substance smoked is only tobacco they provide a new experience for us and a sense of home for the mainly Turkish and middle eastern proprietors and their immigrant countrymen. The essence of British hospitality to newcomers is an expectation that they respect are laws but fearful of accusations of racism many organisations have for too long failed in their duties to call a spade a spade when faced with clear examples of law breaking.  Perhaps the most atrocious of such cases was the cover up of Pakistan heritage men grooming, exploiting, abusing and raping under age girls mainly but not exclusively in northern England. Similar offences by high profile wealthy Arab visitors have been reported for years. Currently a billionaire Arab potentate and friend of the Queen is suspected of causing harm or worse to his daughter. At the lower end of the financial scale there are major concerns that immigrants of Pakistani origin and their families are involved in forced marriage; an offence that was enacted purely as a result of those practices which were common in their countries of origin. The old adage "when in Rome do as the Romans" is particularly applicable to foster harmony between a home population and immigrants.  And that brings me to the disturbing outcome of a case where a few days ago a Turkish chef was cleared of sexual assault of a teenage waitress on the basis of his claim, accepted at Stockport magistrates court, that in his native country it would be considered acceptable behaviour.  A comprehensive court report from World News can be accessed here although the case was widely reported in many other media outlets. 

A case like this will do more to encourage the true racists in this country than all the taking the knee at football matches. Left wing comment has been almost non existent.  Our laws are there to provide justice for all without fear or favour.  In simple terms that means that every case is decided by a single standard. Allowing this defendant to be acquitted is an injustice not only to the complainant but to us all. Thousands who read of this matter will have their faith in our system of justice further eroded. Thousands more will have their hatred for those they consider unwanted  foreigners in this country enhanced. I will conclude by posting below the final few paragraphs of the report. 

A SNAPSHOT OF BRITISH JUSTICE 2021 STYLE

Being retired from any job allows time for some introspection.  As a retired magistrate who has enjoyed sharing his opinions since 2009 this freedom has offered me opportunities to muse on matters of national importance and occasionally to comment [criticise?] on real time happenings at magistrates courts.  Today`s effort is one of those times.

I was active when dedicated domestic violence courses became compulsory for any JP who sat or wished to sit in those courts. I recollect at the time that the providers were heavily dependent on statistics from USA and very much dedicated to male on female violations. I would imagine that such courses have been modified since then.  However a recent case at Grays Magistrates Court caught my eye. As bad a case it is possible to be heard outside the crown court. Indeed from the report it seems it was undercharged resulting in a suspended custodial sentence for the offender.  Readers can access the matter here and it is refreshing to note the detail often omitted these days from the local print media.  In my opinion that offender should have been charged at a higher level where the crown court would pass judgement.  Perhaps pressures on court schedules and Covid -19 have reared their delaying heads. The refusal of compensation defies belief. 

As a Twitter user I have tweeted not so long ago on the public silence of the Magistrates Association concerning its members` court experiences in the light of the pandemic.  Narey a response from it nor the dozens of JPs linked to that outlet. The staff at Highbury Magistrates Court who are in the thick of possible infection are contemplating strike action.  I wish them well. 

Peterborough Magistrates Court was the scene last week where a dangerously drunk driver was sentenced to custody suspended. I am more convinced as the years roll on that sentences of that ilk for offenders such as he are distorting our communal sense of justice to appease left wing activists and the financial restraints of the Ministry of Justice. This particular offender was driving a lethal weapon in such an inebriated state it was akin to conspiracy to murder.  When a population begins to think that criminals can "get away with it" there are social problems ahead. 

On a more positive note to end my rant the user of an illegally transferred Blue Badge recently received her just desserts at Medway Magistrates Court.  For too long these offences were treated too lightly. Justice must be seen to be done and her punishment was just that. 

 Some senior police officers have the foresight, intellect and sensibilities of a mouse. Readers might remember about ten years ago many police forces placed cardboard effigies of a constable   in town centres, supposedly as a deterrent against criminal activity, to a chorus of public derision. It seems that a decade later the top echelons of some police forces are still finding ways to demonstrate their incompetence. A headline today (accessible below) which for me at least sums up so much that is woeful when discussing in general our system of justice from apprehending offenders to their being sentenced. That aforementioned headline was caused by police in Liverpool telling the public by means of large posters that being offensive was illegal. Will they ever learn? 

RETIRED JP STILL BEHOLDEN TO JCIO

 I sat on an inner city bench for seventeen years until enforced retirement allowed me to retain use of the J.P. suffix and automatically relegated me to the "supplemental list" where a very few magisterial functions were still within my authority. The most significant of those  is the authority to countersign  passport applications as  countersignatories must either work in (*or be retired from) a recognised profession and Justice of the Peace is a recognised profession. Those on the supplemental list or retired magistrates cannot:-

 Sit in a magistrates’ court to adjudicate on cases

Sign summonses or warrants, including search warrants

Be a member of any committee or any other body as a magistrate

Take part in the election of chairman or deputy chairman of any bench

Attend any formal or business meeting of their former bench

Countersign an application for a shotgun or firearms licence

Sign off statutory declarations

There is, however, a price to be paid for those who wish to retain the kudos of having those two letters after their name; namely the holder will still be subject to the rules and guidelines to which serving magistrates are subject. Mr Karl McCartney JP MP was first elected at the 2010 general election and represented the constituency until he was defeated by Labour's Karen Lee at the 2017 general election. He was re-elected as a Tory in the 2019 general election and is on the supplemental list. He also exhibits attitudes of an arrogant right wing Tory. In January 2021 the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office issued a formal warning to McCartney for referring to his role as a Magistrate in election material despite having been reprimanded for this previously. This reprimand was "for allowing his judicial status to be referred to on a political leaflet in a way that gave the appearance of seeking to gain advantage which is contrary to guidance that is intended to protect judicial independence and impartiality." In reaching their decision, the JCIO noted that McCartney had previously received a disciplinary sanction for similar behaviour and was unwilling to acknowledge the inappropriateness of his actions. [my bold]

On 29th October 2020 a spokesperson from the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said:“The  Lord  Chancellor  and  Mrs  Justice  Cheema-Grubb  DBE,  on  behalf  of  the  Lord Chief  Justice,  have  issued  Dr  Nigel  Molden  JP,  a  magistrate  on  the  Supplemental List,[my bold]  with a formal warning following a careless driving conviction and the accrual of six  penalty  points  on  his  driving  licence.  In  considering  this  matter,  the  Lord Chancellor  and  Lord  Chief  Justice noted  his  continuing  denial of  any  wrong  doing and also took into account Dr Molden’s timely disclosure to his Bench Chair, and his otherwise clean driving and disciplinary records."

These are but two recent examples of retired magistrates falling foul of the almighty JCIO.  Considering that many thousand magistrates will retire in the next decade they ought to think carefully at that point when they receive a letter such as the one I received copied below. No request was made by me to join the list.

What that letter and enclosure did not spell out was an option to opt out of joining the supplemental list and the fact that being on it placed upon the retired magistrate exactly the same obligations and guidelines as existed when active on the bench. .  Perhaps my advice to magistrates about to retire is that if you do not want your personal activities to come under the long reach of the JCIO you must ask to be removed.   As for me; I did not give a thought to the supplemental list and its obligations until as a result of a blog post 23/7/2019 I was threatened with a full on investigation.

*

I decided that rather than months of arguing and stress to retain those two letters JP and my right to freedom of expression  I resigned from the supplemental list thus ending the inquiry.  But going back to the second sentence of this post I am still a retired magistrate and I suppose that my signature to sign a passport application on that basis will not lead to a death by a thousand cuts from the London Advisory Conduct Committee or its standard bearer Mrs Featherstonhaugh. 

MAGISTRATES COURTS MUST BECOME MORE INQUISITORIAL

There is no doubt that many previously ignored facets of life in the European Union previously taken for granted are now being compared to life in a supposedly independent UK. Extremists on both sides of the Brexit argument are still raising their voices metaphorically and in real time to offer their opinions many of which are bereft of sensible argument but complete with invective and ever more strident haranguing of the perceived opposition. One aspect central to our collective lives continues to underperform using Covid 19 as a convenient excuse; our criminal justice system. In the week ending 20 September 2020, there were 509,347 cases outstanding in the magistrates' courts   and  at the end of Q3 2020 there were 50,918 outstanding cases at the Crown Court, an increase of 44% on Q3 2019 (35,478 cases). This is the highest level of outstanding cases seen since the end of 2015 and continues the consistent increases seen since Q1 2019.  I have yet to read anywhere of any significant member of the legal profession daring to suggest that judicial systems in continental Europe might offer increased efficiency compared to the concept of common law underlying English law. Perhaps there really is a belief that English is best;  I don`t know but what I do know after watching again many series of the wonderful French series "Spiral" is that the case for magistrates in England taking on a more inquisitorial role is in my humble opinion one that cannot be merely dismissed as unEnglish. 

In France and other jurisdictions where the justice system is inquisitorial as opposed to the adversarial system in the U.K. there is an office of investigating magistrate. And as it says on the tin that person takes an active role in the investigation and court proceedings. Judges and J.P.s take an impartial role in the presentation of a criminal case and its defence. There are, however, occasions in a magistrates` court where intervention is not just allowed but necessary in the interests of justice. Frequent examples which come to mind are where a witness is being badgered by a lawyer prosecuting or defending or where the lawyer is insensitive to a witness`s ability to comprehend a convoluted question whether that lawyer`s insensitivity is by accident or design. The cause for intervention in such cases is relatively simple to make. But matters are never always so straight forward.

Many non Crown Prosecution Service offenders are brought to a magistrates` court. Examples are RSPCA, TV licensing, transport companies [fare dodgers], trading standards [fly tipping, health and safety etc ] , local authorities [council tax defaulters] etc etc

I can recollect a case some years ago when I was sitting on one such prosecution. The prosecutor in her opening told us that her only witness, the investigating official, would read his five page statement and she would be relying on a bundle of over 200 pages as her evidence. We duly heard the official and a brief glance at the bundle showed that in addition to the official`s statement it was divided into three complainants` statements, the defendant’s interview, documents directly connecting the offender with the alleged offences and his various bank accounts over the specified period. Defence council had little upon which he could defend his client during cross examination of the official. His client who was not the sharpest knife in the drawer duly did his best under cross examination which was not approaching a Perry Mason standard. We retired to read the bundle telling those involved that we might have some questions for the defendant.

Much of the material in the bundle was totally unhelpful and unnecessary. We had to hunt for the pearls that the prosecutor had told us would be the basis for her case. We duly did find documents which appeared to link the defendant with the offence. Our concern was that they although they had been exhibited neither lawyer had pin pointed them. We decided that in the interests of justice we could not adjudicate without further knowledge and more answers. Thus we questioned the defendant in detail overruling objections from his counsel. He was found guilty. At the post court review our legal adviser anticipating the tone of the discussion assured us that our inquisitorial approach was, in this particular case, perfectly lawful. He agreed that the prosecutor was failing in her duty when she attempted to rely on a huge bundle without further probing. He added that he would have intervened if we had been overstepping the mark.

With ever increasing numbers of defendants denied legal aid and without the means to employ representation it is my belief that magistrates and District Judges must be allowed discretion to undertake an inquisitorial  role to ensure that a defendant is assured of justice not being denied owing to their  inability or lack of confidence in presenting their opinion in the witness box.  There will be many who will vociferously protest that the level playing field and equality of arms argument must not be questioned but those very terms are now nothing but fond memories. Indeed they are a misrepresentation of the current state of activity in the magistrates courts system. They are an anachronism. Even before my last court sitting almost six years ago it was apparent that many defendants were considering guilty pleas simply because of convenience in getting the matter over with. Pressures for such equivocal pleas have increased greatly since then although I know of no research to prove my point. A most enlightening article on the consideration of early guilty pleas and ancillary information The Supervision of Guilty Pleas by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales – Workable Relationships and Tragic Choices is available here. 

Chairmanship of a magistrates` bench is an art not a science although the drafters of the so called competences required and the resultant appraisals techniques would seem to argue otherwise. J.P.s` awareness of when sensitive questioning of a witness is useful is not in the instruction manual but it is in the interests of justice especially in this era of unrepresented defendants.  The adversarial system can only offer confidence in the concept of justice for all being done and being seen to be done when there is a true equality of arms.  When boxing enthusiasts attend a fight they do not expect a flyweight to be matched with a middleweight.  In the magistrates court where the stakes are sometimes life changing such mismatches are an every day occurrence.  There must be change.   

CHIEFS AND INDIANS: TOO MANY OR TOO FEW?

I was never a management consultant or worked in HR but I was an employer who had at his maximum ten employees for whom I had to provide a safe, secure well organised working environment. Like any employer it was my responsibility to organise these people so that they and the  business put their best endeavours forward for all to prosper.  That included recognising and maximising the best abilities of each person.  Even in such a small workforce the recognition in title and remuneration of outstanding talent was essential. In large national organisations huge departments of specialists are employed to do much the same and none more so than in police forces. To that end the 2020 ratio of serving officers was as below:-

5.39 constables/sergeant

3.33 sergeants/inspector

3.26 inspectors/chief inspector

1.85 chief inspectors/superintendent

2.97 superintendents/chief superintendent

1.36 chief superintendents/chief officer 

These ratios are based on the chart below.

 

Whether or not these numbers are as efficient for purpose as they could or should be is beyond my comprehension but they are fact. In 2013 the figures were as below:-

4.86 constables/sergeant

3.26 sergeants/inspector

3.49 inspectors/chief inspector

2.2 chief inspectors/superintendent

2.24 superintendents/chief superintendent

1.82 chief superintendents/ACPO rank

For previous posts on this topic type "statistics police ranks" in the search box.

IS 99% CONVICTION RATE EVER JUSTIFIED?

It is not uncommon when reading legal reports from China that their conviction rate is around 99%. Most observers will remark that such a conviction rate reeks of a totalitarian system of government where the courts and the legal system are but servants of said government and that as a system of so called justice it fails miserably to reach even the lowest benchmarks regarded as indicative of a system which is free and open for all regardless of rank or position. In other words in plain English defendants are more or less rubber stamped as guilty even in the rare circumstances where they can offer a defence in the real meaning of that word as it applies we hope in this country. At the other end of the outcome scale there is a an apparent never ending complaint in this country that cases of rape are inefficiently investigated by police, undercharged by CPS and too often conclude with findings of not guilty. The question for all involved within the legal system is quite simply what is the "correct" rate of conviction: a rate which reflects the definition we place on guilt having been established beyond reasonable doubt.

There are lawyers who argue that magistrates courts should be presided over only by District Judges (MC) on the basis presumably that their clients would receive a fairer hearing and be less likely to be convicted than by a bench of three magistrates. As an aside those self same lawyers would be aghast if a single crown court judge replaced the jury system of twelve. There are, however, some statistics which make interesting reading regarding summary motoring offences where almost everyone has a vested interest in avoiding conviction and which are generally decided by a magistrates bench. In the 12 months ending June 2020 480,203 defendants were tried against of whom 474,039 were convicted; a rate of 98.7%. A complete extract from the appropriate statistics table is copied above.

An interesting comparison can be made with figures newly released on single justice procedures with speeding charges based upon detection by camera devices for the nine months ended September 2020 during which 68,905 were progressed resulting in 43% pleading guilty. Not guilty pleas were about 1%. Presumably the  remainder chose not to attend although the figures do not make it clear if non attendees were included in the 43% nor the numbers sent for trial of the 1%. My personal assumption is that the outstanding 56% were found guilty by the single justice based upon paper evidence which was unopposed.  

The only conclusion seems to be that a conviction rate of around 99% can be justified as a true reflection of a fair justice system but only in very precise circumstances.  To use a conviction rate alone to further a legal argument without other considerations is unjustified (pun intended).