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Finding a Willing Supervisor for an Unfit Defendant City and County of Swansea v Swansea Crown Court [2016] EWHC 1389 (Admin)

Document Cited authorities 5 Cited in Related
Vincent
Date01 October 2016
DOI10.1177/0022018316667120
Published date01 October 2016
Subject MatterDivisional Court
CLJ667120 283..284 The Journal of Criminal Law
2016, Vol. 80(5) 283–284
Divisional Court
ª The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0022018316667120
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Finding a Willing Supervisor for an Unfit Defendant
City and County of Swansea v Swansea Crown
Court [2016] EWHC 1389 (Admin)
Keywords
Unfitness to plead, capacity, disposals, supervision order, judicial review, matters relating to trial on indictment
B had been charged with numerous historical sexual offences against a child family member. By the time
of his trial, B was suffering from dementia and was found unfit to plead. A jury was empanelled under s.
4A of the Criminal Procedure (Insanity) Act 1964 (‘CP(I)A’) to determine whether B ‘did the act[s] . . . -
charged against him as the offence[s]’. The jury found that B had ‘done the acts’ relating to 13 counts of
rape of a child under 13 and seven counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity.
Following a finding that an unfit accused did the relevant act(s), s. 5 of the CP(I)A (as amended)
requires the court to make a hospital order, a supervision order or an absolute discharge. In the present
case, Mr Recorder Philpotts purported to make a supervision order for two years, naming Ms Beasant, a
social worker for the City and County of Swansea (‘the Council’), as the supervising officer. The order
required B to: keep in touch with Ms Beasant; reside at a specified care home; and, submit to treatment
by a named medical practitioner. However, Ms Beasant was not asked whether she was willing to act as
B’s supervisor for the purposes of the supervision order.
Shortly before the hearing at which the supervision order was made, B had been referred to the Council’s
Social Services Department and placed in a care home pending a formal assessment of his needs. The
conclusion of the assessment had been that B did not meet the necessary criteria for local authority accom-
modation or services. Ms Beasant had been the social...

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