CROWN COURT APPEALS

 

The above is an extract from 10 years statistics on appeals to the crown court against verdict and sentence.  I am not a statistician and leave it to others who might explore some numbers or trends.  However a glance tells us that from 2017 there was a marked change in absolute numbers.  The figures for 2020-2022 are those of the period in which the epidemic skewed statistics for myriad organisations.  It is noteworthy in my opinion to look at the years 2014 and 2019.  In the former there was a total of 11,214 appeals at crown court of which 5,731 were against verdict. 2,529 of those were allowed.  Against sentence there were 4,816 with 2,222 being successful.  In 2019 there was a total of 7,925 appeals at crown court of which 3,863 were against verdict. 1,730 of those were allowed.  Against sentence there were 3,435 with 1,705 being successful.  Figures for 2023 are total of 5,803 appeals at crown court of which 2,614 were against verdict. 1,088 of those were allowed.  Against sentence there were 2,647 with 1,272 being successful.  Considering that there are 150 magistrates courts in England and Wales on average only 39 appeals were registered  per court for the year 2023.  Over a million cases are expected annual at magistrates courts.  At the end of September 2023 there were 352,945 outstanding cases at the magistrates' courts. 

The numbers of appeals have reduced.  It could be argued that that is an indication of reduced prosecutions.  It could be argued that the Single Justice Procedure is antagonistic to appealing.  It could be argued that it`s an indication that magistrates courts are becoming more efficient in reaching verdicts and sentences.  It could be argued that fewer able offenders are equipped one way or another to go through the appeals process.  What, in my opinion, is unarguable is that much more research into the functioning of magistrates courts is necessary; e.g. the variations, if any, in the outcomes between lay benches and District Judges(MC) and the frequency of presiding magistrates advising offenders of their right to appeal  to name but two.  

It seems unlikely that the decline in our justice system  since 2010 will be reversed in the coming five years.  Indeed it is now obvious that that decline is just symptomatic in the decline of our society as a whole from one where "things can only get better" to one of "we`re doing the best we can under the circumstances".  Result..........Pessimists 1: Optimists 0. 

THE CYCLE OF JUSTICE

One of the joys of my life was for my 15th birthday the present from my parents of a brand spanking new red and white Raleigh touring bicycle having 3 speed sturmey archer gear shifter, white wall tyres, a foldaway stand, two mirrors and the ubiquitous bell to warn off impending collisions with pedestrians aimlessly crossing my path. The only missing accessory was a dynamo powered light set owing to my parents` insistence that I didn`t go anywhere after dark.  That sensation of freedom induced by those two wheels was an elixir of exuberance repeated when four years later I took possession of another red and white two wheeled transporter; a 125cc Lambretta scooter.  My first car purchased as my student days ended was the final adrenalin inducing vehicle which gave me a similar "high" as did that bike years earlier.  As a car owning pensioner in my latter years living in an ordinary suburban environment I wouldn`t now cycle more than half a mile from my house at any price even if I had the most efficient electric bike there is to be bought.  I rate the risk of injury too high; paranoid perhaps but a not uncommon feeling amongst many.  

Perhaps that brief history explains why I have been so interested in the sad case of Auriol Grey.   Literally the trials and tribulations following those events have now been laid bare for all to see. And as if by Zeus in his Olympus hideaway throwing a bolt of lightening to illuminate the law and its perversity another event with a cyclist at its centre has brought into view questions about the Crown Prosecution Service and its capacity to lose public confidence in its ability to do the job we expect.  So many public bodies have been seen to fail with the cover ups of these failings exposing systemic government failures to punish those personnel responsible i.e. failure of the CPS and police to pursue wrong doers within parameters that must have been whispered by the NHS, Home Office and Ministry of Justice. The latest death by bike was that of Hilda Griffiths 81, knocked down in Regents Park by Brian Fitzgerald cycling at 30MPH.  Rarely do "normal" cyclists even approach such a speed which is equal to travelling 44 feet per second.  Law is available which if applied could have brought the director  of an international bank to trial.  There is  "Causing Bodily Harm by wanton or furious driving."  This 1861 Act is still in use today.  "Whosoever, having the charge of any carriage or vehicle, shall by wanton or furious driving or racing, or other wilful misconduct, or by wilful neglect, do or cause to be done any bodily harm to any person whatsoever, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years ..."   During my period as a magistrate I was in the middle chair on an occasion when this Act was used successfully to prosecute the drunken driver of a mobility scooter who knocked down a pedestrian on the pavement.  The 1988 Road Traffic Act is available to the CPS.  My question is why the police did not charge under the most appropriate section.  Was it that the "accused" was likely to be a person of wealth and high social standing with ample resources financial and professional at his disposal?  

There is no doubt that from virtually every angle or viewpoint the justice system in this country from arrest to Z beds in prison cells is approaching a point not just of no return but a point where the public has no faith in its being fit for purpose. When that collapse happens it is a signal that society itself is at a point of disintegration.  Identity politics is the term that`s been given to the divisions in the country centred on racial or ethnic group preferences.  This whole topic has become an industry as this style guide from Bristol University illustrates.  

   

We are in a situation where the answer to the questions, "What is British" or "What does it mean to be British" or "What are the five most typical British values" are no longer able to be rolled off the tongue without some deep thinking.  There are those amongst us whose desire is to diminish any sense at all of Britishness. Those who denounce patriotism for that is what Britishness is at its core are bad mouthed as being racist or worse.  It is to be hoped that these increasingly widening cracks in society can be unified but failing an alien invasion from the Andromeda Nebula Ah hae ma doots as the separates north of Hadrian`s Wall would say.  

TO BE WELSH OR NOT TO BE WELSH? THAT IS THE QUESTION

I suppose language can be likened to glue; depending on its formula and purpose it binds together disparate substances to form in effect a new or enhanced object with a new or enhanced purpose.  In any population, society, tribe, grouping, sect or family language can also be as divisive as the English Channel dividing England from the European continent.  

Language can divide or unite nations.  Belgium is an artificial construct between original Dutch speakers and French speakers where politics is forever treading a tightrope between two proud communities.  The tragedy of Ukraine has a basis in geographical separation of language between the east and west of the country. When early Zionists in the 19th century began buying land in Ottoman controlled Palestine they were communicating with the Jews and Arabs living there in European languages as well as Arabic and Hebrew.  As time went on the early pioneers of increased Jewish immigration realised that to increase the cohesiveness of a diverse people Hebrew would be imposed as the target national language of a future nation and thus a language that had been in common use until two thousand  years ago but had diminishing numbers of speakers mainly for religious purposes was re-born in a modern form alongside Arabic as the national languages of the modern State of Israel.

Before the Roman invasion the Brittonic language was the lingua franca in what is now Great Britain south of the Firth of Forth.  The Romans left their 400 year occupation having bequeathed to future generations the Latin language which has been a foundation stone of modern English. Similarly after 1066 Norman French was the predominant language of the English nobility until English, derived from invaders between the 5th and 7th centuries, was given official status by the Pleading in English Act 1362.  That act stated that pleas in Courts had to be held in English although written accounts were still in Latin. English became the official language in England during the reign of King Henry V.

Researchers have shown that Cornish, Scottish Gaelic, Irish, Manx and Welsh belong to the Celtic branch of Indo-European. Celtic, in turn, divides into two distinct subgroups: P-Celtic (or Brythonic) and Q-Celtic (or Goidelic). Cornish and Welsh are P-Celtic languages, whilst Scottish Gaelic, Irish and Manx are Q-Celtic languages.  Nationalism thrives as a driving force for populist political philosophy and language is part of that force.  Ireland is a prime example where many Catholics in Northern Ireland were encouraged by their co-religionists over the border to learn Gaelic.  The SNP legislated for road signs in Scotland to be in Scottish Gaelic as well as English. Many government and other official documents are now published in Welsh alongside English.  The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 is the legislation that created the Welsh language standards. It is a legally binding framework that all public organisations in Wales must follow to make sure that the Welsh language is treated no less favourably than English.  All children in Wales have to learn Welsh up until they are 16. Details of language provision is available here.  

A private parking company with a dubious reputation has recently won an action against a Welsh speaker for not publishing its documents in Welsh.  With both Scots and Welsh assemblies originally offered in an attempt to assuage nationalistic murmurings beginning to be aroused 50 years ago they are now being seen by their proponents as a springboard, especially in Scotland, for complete independence.  Such division would be a catastrophe for this United Kingdom but a triumph for those who seek to increase European division both within and without its geographic boundaries.  The General Elections both in this country, Europe and USA might answer the question as to whether a certain Mr V. Putin has succeeded with his disruptive aspirations aided by social media acolytes. 

Language was, is and always will be a uniter or disuniter of societies.  Ours is no exception.  The very term "woke" is a familiar example. Lewis Carroll and George Orwell each in his own way owed much of their literary status to the effects of understanding or misunderstanding the meaning of words.   

IT IS BROKE AND THEY WON`T FIX IT

There`s an old adage, "if it ain`t broke don`t fix it."  Whilst it sounds reasonable advice, on a second reading it becomes obvious that if it is followed there must be preparation for the breakdown which results.  If machinery is allowed to function without maintenance seemingly in fine operating condition it will be a matter of when not if it fails.  Owners of vehicles, bicycles, guns, hydro electric schemes, oil tankers; indeed there are very few man made objects with moving parts  which don`t require inspection and careful attention to allow them to function at maximum capacity for maximum efficiency over a maximum lifetime.   When it comes to organisations similar considerations should apply but they don`t. 

It seems almost monthly that we read of supervisory organisations in many spheres of our lives which have failed in their primary functions of ensuring that those organisations over which they have the power to inspect, impose, change or challenge existing forms of behaviour, supervision, rules or recommendations have failed with the cost of such failure being the ruin of human lives.  We are conditioned to bland statements from such entities when their failings are made public.  Only those with a professional or personal insight into such situations are truly aware of what horror stories lie behind each such announcement.  Very often those individuals go public with their informed comments only when they are retired secure in the knowledge that their pensions are safe.  Ex senior police officers, judges and medical staff are amongst the most prominent but rarely are their wise words more than just a few days` headlines. Within our emasculated and discredited justice system I would opine that the most heinous miscarriages of justice occur at the lowliest courts in the system; the magistrates courts. 

Earlier this century the success rates for appeal of verdicts charged with either way offences  at magistrates courts was as in the table below.

Appeals against sentence or verdict at magistrates courts have consistently been around 45% successful in the following decade. 

Current estimates are that around 24% of all appeals to the crown court are successful.  With the introduction of the Single Justice Procedure in 2015 it might be thought surprising that successful appeals have not shown a marked increase.  It is hard perhaps to stomach in these egalitarian times but only a relatively small percentage of guilty defendants have the means to hire a lawyer to represent them at an appeal before a judge and two magistrates or alternatively the time and intellect to be litigants in person.  

It is within the magistrates courts that the vast majority of offenders is faced with the power of the judicial system; a system which is often stacked against them because the old notion of a "level playing field" or "equality of arms" is but a historical memory.  Returning to my theme, the magistrates courts system is indeed "broke"; broken by deliberate government action and inaction.  This is in some ways similar to the result of matter colliding with  anti- matter which I believe results in the constituent particles destroying each other with a huge energy release. Depending on the colliding particles not only is there a great energy release, but new, different particles may also be produced (such as neutrinos and various flavours of quark.  For matter and anti matter substitute the rights of the individual and the power of the state. The released substances of the collision might be listed as victims` rights, equivocal guilty pleas, perverse verdicts, prisoner suicides, decision making in the near future by A.I., increased wrongful convictions, premature releases and many more. 

If it`s not too late to "service" the damaged courts system and attempt a "fix" there must be a political will which just does not exist.  I fear that lay magistrates might soon be losing my preference as the best way of handling a million plus summary matters every year.  It has become newsworthy that some of the recent local election results in certain areas have come about as a result of foreign practices being employed by immigrant communities. With the numbers of Muslim magistrates or their affiliations being kept secret by the MOJ I fear that political influences could be added to the already undertrained recent cohorts of those hastily added to the bench as a result of deliberate mismanagement.  Urgent consideration should be given to the Presiding Judge directing that all those found guilty be instructed that they have a right to appeal verdict and/or sentence and practical efforts eg leaflets on that process, be handed out in the courts.  As was the case last century applicants to the bench should be obliged to state their political allegiance(s).  Limits of eg 20 years service should be imposed upon magistrates.  Defendants must lose the right in either way offences to choose crown court trial. Consideration must be given to insist that all trials should be presided over by a District Judge [MC] with two magistrate wingers and/or all cases where custody is an option.  

However simple my wish list the images in my crystal ball will remain just that.  The justice  system is broken for all of us apart from oligarchs and their wives fighting over the results of their divorces and the media trying to prise open government`s secret files.  

It is broke and "they" won`t fix it.