Crown Prosecution Service v LR
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 28 April 2010 |
| Date | 28 April 2010 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) |
Court of Appeal, Criminal Division
Before Lord Judge, Lord Chief Justice, Mr Justice Wilkie and Mr Justice Maddison
The prosecution in possession of allegedly indecent images could not refuse to disclose them to the defence team on the ground that it would be committing an offence if it did so.
Where the Crown had possession of such material, it had to propose satisfactory arrangements to enable the defendant to have confidential, private discussions of it with his lawyers, unsupervised and unobserved by prosecution representatives.
TheCourt of Appeal, Criminal Division, so held when dismissing an appeal by the Crown, under section 58 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, against the decision by Judge Pearson in Portsmouth Crown Court to stay proceedings against the defendant, R(L), on 19 counts of making indecent photographs of a child, contrary to section 1(1)(a) of the Protection of Children Act 1978, and one count of possession of 221 such photographs, contrary to section 160(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.
Thejudge rejected the Crown's proposal that access to the images could be provided by allowing the defence team to view them on a laptop in a glass walled court conference room, with a police officer outside the room to maintain some form of control.
The judge held that such arrangements would present a serious risk of interference with the confidentiality principle, taking place in sight and earshot of the officer in the case, and ordered the Crown to show copies of the images to the defence subject to appropriate undertakings as to safe custo dy and control of the images.
The Crown did not comply with the order and the judge ordered a stay.
Mr Timothy Mousley,QCand Mr Adrian Fleming for the Crown; Mr Frank S. Privett, assigned by the Registrar of Criminal Appeals, for the defendant.
THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE, delivering the judgment of the court, said that because the prosecution was in possession of the material, it had to propose satisfactory arrangements to enable the defendant to have a sensible and confidential discussion with his lawyers with, in the event of disagreement, the judge deciding whether the...
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