Charges discontinued in the magistrates’ Court

Our client was accused of inducing a child to run / stay away. The child was the subject of a care order and resided at secured local authority accommodation. Our client was accused of attending this accommodation and inducing and assisting her in her escape out of the window.

The Crown relied on telephone evidence said to place our client at the scene, and CCTV said to show him assisting her escape. Our client could not be identified in the CCTV, which did not show his face. We attacked the strength of the telephone evidence, drawing attention to inconsistencies and requesting that the full data underlying the telephone maps and schedules be provided so that we could examine it. We insisted that without the underlying material, the prosecution could not rely on the telephone evidence at trial.

We also applied pressure to obtain further disclosures from the Crown, as there was evidence of unused material with the potential to exonerate our client. We were able to persuade the Court to adjourn the trial to a later date and order service of this critical material.

Following our repeated requests for the provision of material, the Crown decided to discontinue the proceedings on the basis that there was no realistic prospect of conviction. Our client and his family were extremely pleased with the result.

Phoebe Coleman was the solicitor with conduct of this case. Mark Davies assisted in the case preparation and Isabella Denn-White of 7 Harrington Street Chambers.