House of Lords
| DOI | 10.1177/002201830106500405 |
| Published date | 01 August 2001 |
| Date | 01 August 2001 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
House
of
Lords
Custody
Time
Limit
on
Change
of
Charge
Rv
Leeds
Crown
Court,
ex p.
Wardle
[2001] 3 WLR 865
The
defendant
in this case
had
engaged in a violent dwelling-house
burglary in
which
an
old
man,
the
occupier,
had,
with
his sister-in-law
who
lived
with
him
been
so
threatened
and
mishandled
that
he
had
died
and
his sister-in-law
had
been
injured
and
had
required
hospital trear-
ment.
The
defendant
was arrested,
but
was released
on
bail for lack of
evidence. After
further
investigation,
he
was
re-arrested
and
charged
with
murder.
He was held in
the
custody of
the
magistrates'court
pending
their
inquiry
and
determination
of
the
question
whether
to
commit
him
for trial in
the
Crown
Court. His
detention
in custody was
subject to s. 22 of
the
Prosecution of Offences Act 1985
and
the
Prosecu-
tion of Offences (Custody Time Limits) Regulations 1987,
under
reg.
4(4) of
which
the
custody
time
limit was fixed at 70 days. About a
week
before
the
expiry of
that
date,
the
prosecution
sent
him
a mass of
documents
and
informed
him
that
it was
their
intention
to reduce
the
charge to
one
of manslaughter.
When,
on
the
last
day
of
the
period of
the
custody
time
limit, he
appeared
before
the
magistrates'court,
the
prosecution offered
no
evidence
on
the
murder
charge
and
introduced a
fresh
information
charging manslaughter. The magistrate
then
extended
the
custody
time
limit for
another
70 days
and
added
that, as
the
charge
of
manslaughter
was a fresh charge,
that
fact
also
justified
the
further
70-day
additional
time
limit. He appealed from
that
decision to
the
Crown Court,
where
the
judge
held
that
there
was
no
justification for
the
extension
of
the
time
limit
on
the
murder
charge,
but
that
the
fresh
period of 70 days
was
lawfully allowed in relation to
the
fresh charge (of
manslaughter).
He appealed from
that
decision to
the
Divisional Court,
which
upheld
both
parts of
the
Crown
Court's ruling. He was tried for,
and
convicted of,
manslaughter
in
the
Crown
Court;
but
he appealed
from
the
Divisional Court's decision in relation to
the
custody time limit,
to
the
House of Lords,
with
leave of
the
full House.
Section 22 of
the
Prosecution of Offences Act 1985
empowers
the
Home Secretary to
make
regulations
with
respect to
the
specified
preliminary stages of proceedings for
an
offence as to
the
maximum
period: (a) to be allowed to
the
prosecution to complete
that
stage;
and
(b)
during
which
the
accused
may
be in
the
custody of
the
magistrates'
court
or
the
Crown
Court 'for
that
offence:
By s. 22(3)
the
court
may
extended
the
time before its expiry,
but
this is
only
on
the
conditions laid
down
in
the
section,
the
principal of
which
is (now)
that
the
prosecution
has acted
with
all
due
diligence
and
expedition. For this purpose,
proceedings begin
when
the
charge is
made
or
an
information charging
the
offence is laid.
Regulation 4 of
the
Prosecution of Offences (Custody Time Limits)
Regulations 1987 provides
that
the
maximum
period during
which
a
323
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