R v Conner Phillips
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Lord Justice Dingemans |
| Judgment Date | 31 January 2020 |
| Neutral Citation | [2020] EWCA Civ 126 |
| Date | 31 January 2020 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) |
| Docket Number | No: 201803796/C3, 201804034/C3 & 201804035/C3 |
[2020] EWCA Civ 126
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL
CRIMINAL DIVISION
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand
London, WC2A 2LL
Lord Justice Dingemans
Mrs Justice Elisabeth Laing DBE
Sir David Foskett
No: 201803796/C3, 201804034/C3 & 201804035/C3
Miss F Arshad appeared on behalf of the Appellant and Applicant
Mr S Ward appeared on behalf of the Crown
Introduction
This is the hearing of an appeal against conviction on the part of the First Appellant Conner Phillips, permission to appeal having been granted by the full court on 27 September 2019. Conner Phillips' appeal against conviction raises again the issue of the effect of earlier Facebook identifications on the admissibility of identification evidence and the directions needed where such evidence has been admitted. This issue has been addressed by the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division in R v I [2007] EWCA Crim 923; [2007] 2 Cr App R 24, R v Alexander and McGill [2012] EWCA Crim 2768; [2013] 1 Cr App R 26, and R v LT [2019] EWCA Crim 58; [2019] 1 Cr App R 30. This is a reflection of the increasing number of times that identifications on social media have taken place before formal identification procedures.
There are also adjourned applications for:
(1) an extension of time of 7 months and 10 days to renew applications for permission to appeal against sentence; and
(2) permission to appeal against sentence on behalf of Conner Phillips and his brother, the Second Appellant Louis Phillips. Those applications for an extension of time and for permission to appeal against sentence were adjourned by the full court to this court.
Conner and Louis Phillips were convicted in the Crown Court at Snaresbrook on 7 August 2018 following a trial before Mr Recorder Robert Rhodes QC and a jury of the offences of: (1) wounding with intent contrary to section 18 Offences against the Person Act 1861; (2) Affray, contrary to section 3 of the Public Order Act 1986.
Conner Phillips was also convicted of having a bladed article in a public place, contrary to section 139 Criminal Justice Act 1988, and Louis Phillips was convicted of having an offensive weapon in a public place, contrary to section 1 of the Prevention of Crime Act 1953.
Conner Phillips was sentenced to an overall sentence of 16 years under section 226A of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. This comprised a custodial term of 14 years' imprisonment and an extension period of two years. Louis Phillips was sentenced to an overall sentence of an extended sentence of 12 years under section 226A of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. This comprised a custodial term of 10 years' detention in a young offender institution and an extension period of two years.
The respective cases
The case concerned a stabbing of Christopher Parkin that occurred shortly after midnight and in the early morning of Saturday 27 January 2018 in the car park of the Albion Public House in Rainham, Essex.
The prosecution case was that the incident began with an argument inside the pub, when Louis Phillips and his friend pushed a girl, who then fell. Mr Parkin, the victim of the stabbing, became confrontational and was restrained by his friend, as he and Louis Phillips shouted at each other. The prosecution case was that Louis Phillips then phoned his brother, Conner Phillips and went outside, followed by Mr Parkin, the pub manager John Button and his assistant manager Michael Justice. Louis Phillips had a belt wrapped around his hand and used the buckle as an offensive weapon to hit the car in which the girl and her male friend were sitting in the car park. He then hit both Mr Parkin and his friend with the belt. Conner Phillips was then said to have arrived in a van to help his brother and there was a fight involving a number of people. In the course of the fight, it was said that Conner Phillips stabbed Mr Parkin twice and after that Louis Phillips stabbed him twice and ran away. Conner Phillips left the scene in the van which was found burnt out later that night.
The Crown relied on identification evidence given at VIPER identification procedures on 22 February 2018, when Michael Justice identified Conner Phillips and Louis Phillips, and Sharnie Thomas identified Conner Phillips. At a further identification procedure on 4 April 2018, John Button identified Conner Phillips and Louis Phillips. They were arrested on 22 February 2018 and made no comment in interview.
The defence case for Conner Phillips was that he was not present and had been mistakenly identified. The issue for the jury therefore in respect of Conner Phillips was whether he had been correctly identified as one of those involved in the incident in the car park.
The relevant evidence
John Button was the manager of The Albion Public House. Louis Phillips had been in the pub with his friends playing pool. There was an argument which began after a girl was pushed by Louis Phillips and his friend. Mr Button saw Louis Phillips step away on his own and use his phone. Louis Phillips was then confronted by Mr Parkin who was restrained by his friend. Mr Parkin and Louis Phillips were shouting at each other and Louis Phillips rushed out of the door. A minute later, or so, Mr Parkin went out, followed by Mr Button and Mr Parkin's friend. Louis Phillips was now banging a car with a belt buckle and he was swinging the belt which was wrapped around his hand. He was shouting at those in the car to get out. Mr Parkin and his friend ran over to them and Louis Phillips turned around and then hit them with the belt. A fight broke out, involving about a dozen people. A van pulled up near Mr Button in the car park and a man got out of the driver's seat and asked Mr Button if he was alright. Louis Phillips was at this time fighting with Mr Parkin. The van driver then punched Mr Parkin's friend and then went and punched Mr Parkin, who fell to the ground. After that Louis Phillips went to Mr Parkin and the witness saw his right hand thrusting towards Mr Parkin's body once or twice. Mr Parkin fell to the ground. Mr Button went to Mr Parkin who was covered in blood. There was lighting in the car park. Mr Button had seen the van driver before in the pub on one or two occasions before Christmas but did not know his name.
On 4 April, Mr Button attended an ID procedure where he positively identified Louis Phillips as one of the men who stabbed Mr Parkin and Conner Phillips as the man who turned up in the van.
In cross-examination, Mr Button said that on the Monday after the incident he was shown a photograph of Conner Phillips by a member of staff who said that she knew those involved in the fight. Mr Button sent the picture to the police and said in evidence ‘that was the guy who got out of the white van. I didn't know who Conner was previously or the name of the man who got out of the white van’. He said that he had seen Conner Phillips, as indicated above, on one or two occasions beforehand, albeit without knowing his name.
Michael Justice was the assistant manager of the pub. He said there was an altercation in the pub and there came a point when Louis Phillips said, ‘fuck this’ and ran outside. Lots of people went out after him, including Mr Button and Mr Justice. He saw Louis Phillips swinging a belt and hitting a car with the buckle. A van arrived and a man got out and calmly asked Mr Button if he was alright, which seemed weird because five or ten people were fighting. The man immediately went and got involved in the fighting, fighting with Mr Parkin and his friend. Before that he saw Louis Phillips fighting with Mr Parkin and his friend, and hitting them with his belt, fist and feet. The van left at speed and then he noticed that Mr Parkin's friend was bleeding, but he noticed that Mr Parkin was on the floor covered in blood. The lighting in the car park was reasonable and there was also street lighting.
On 22 February Mr Justice attended a VIPER procedure and positively identified Louis Phillips as the man with the belt and Conner Phillips as the man who turned up in the van.
In cross-examination he said that he saw photographs two days after the incident. He did not know the names of the men but he knew what they looked like. He did not believe he had seen Conner Phillips before but he identified him as the man who had got out of the van. The photograph that he was shown after the incident did not entirely look like the same person.
Sharnie Thomas was a customer at The Albion Public House. She was...
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