The crown
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Following on from my earlier post about “today is the day” thank you all so much for the kind words and support it really does mean a lot and provides comfort at a time of great distress. Sorry this post has turned into a bit of an essay.
I’m wondering if anyone has a similar story to ours or can offer advice or guidance on where to go from here.
Just a bit of background information the knock happened in May 2021 and we waited until November 2022 to hear anything back from the police. My husband was never interviewed or arrested at the time of the knock as we were not at home and the police used a device to open our door and enter our home without anyone there and remove devices. His first court appearance was in December 2022 where we turned up only to be told its postponed. A letter arrived a week later to tell us not to turn up. They had sent it during the postal strikes. We have now had seven court appearances where things have been continued. Today was supposed to be a trial however, the crown asked for it to be adjourned. The first date they could find was in December. The charge is for extreme porn.
Several times the case was continued as the crown had not send the forensic report from the devices taken. Eventually it arrived with our KC who immediately contacted the crown as he felt there were several things wrong. First of all, he advised that this was a very thin report, apparently usually its lots of pages, and everything was basically redacted. The crown confirmed that he had the correct report however, he checked with them three times. At the meeting last week with the KC he had told us he had agreed the evidence and there would be no witness. Today, at the beginning of proceedings the crown suddenly announced that they were bringing a witness a police forensic person. The KC had not been told about this and also the KC witnessed the crown passing to the judge a very thick forensic report with nothing redacted. Our KC was immediately on his feet and the judge was very unhappy to learn that we did not have a copy of this report and that the wrong report had been used in discussions at the pre-trial diet. The judge made it clear to the crown that this was very unsatisfactory. The crown also had as the front of the report screen shots of websites that my husband visited that had sexual stories on them. The crown really seemed to make a big issue of these stories and gave the impression that they were worse than the nine images. We were then asked to wait outside and it went back and forth. The crown agreed to withdraw the stories and only use the images but by then the judge said that my husband could not have a fair trial as he had seen these screen shots of stories so it had to be adjourned again. We have taken a real kick today and it all seems a bit of a blur. It feels like the crown acted in a very almost sneaky way. The police forensic person also never turned up. We now have to have another pre-trial diet and then a trial in December. It feels like going away back to the start again.
The other thing that is worrying now is that the KC said today that he cannot find another case like this. I’m so sorry for this massive rant. We are just at a loss. It’s so ridiculous that if we weren’t the ones involved we would laugh. We have requested an urgent meeting with the KC to find out exactly what is happening. Does anyone have any experience of the crown being sneaky?
I’m wondering if anyone has a similar story to ours or can offer advice or guidance on where to go from here.
Just a bit of background information the knock happened in May 2021 and we waited until November 2022 to hear anything back from the police. My husband was never interviewed or arrested at the time of the knock as we were not at home and the police used a device to open our door and enter our home without anyone there and remove devices. His first court appearance was in December 2022 where we turned up only to be told its postponed. A letter arrived a week later to tell us not to turn up. They had sent it during the postal strikes. We have now had seven court appearances where things have been continued. Today was supposed to be a trial however, the crown asked for it to be adjourned. The first date they could find was in December. The charge is for extreme porn.
Several times the case was continued as the crown had not send the forensic report from the devices taken. Eventually it arrived with our KC who immediately contacted the crown as he felt there were several things wrong. First of all, he advised that this was a very thin report, apparently usually its lots of pages, and everything was basically redacted. The crown confirmed that he had the correct report however, he checked with them three times. At the meeting last week with the KC he had told us he had agreed the evidence and there would be no witness. Today, at the beginning of proceedings the crown suddenly announced that they were bringing a witness a police forensic person. The KC had not been told about this and also the KC witnessed the crown passing to the judge a very thick forensic report with nothing redacted. Our KC was immediately on his feet and the judge was very unhappy to learn that we did not have a copy of this report and that the wrong report had been used in discussions at the pre-trial diet. The judge made it clear to the crown that this was very unsatisfactory. The crown also had as the front of the report screen shots of websites that my husband visited that had sexual stories on them. The crown really seemed to make a big issue of these stories and gave the impression that they were worse than the nine images. We were then asked to wait outside and it went back and forth. The crown agreed to withdraw the stories and only use the images but by then the judge said that my husband could not have a fair trial as he had seen these screen shots of stories so it had to be adjourned again. We have taken a real kick today and it all seems a bit of a blur. It feels like the crown acted in a very almost sneaky way. The police forensic person also never turned up. We now have to have another pre-trial diet and then a trial in December. It feels like going away back to the start again.
The other thing that is worrying now is that the KC said today that he cannot find another case like this. I’m so sorry for this massive rant. We are just at a loss. It’s so ridiculous that if we weren’t the ones involved we would laugh. We have requested an urgent meeting with the KC to find out exactly what is happening. Does anyone have any experience of the crown being sneaky?
Hi Rachel my person was 1 count of attempted communication it's taken us 5 trial dates for it to finally go ahead for varying reasons. Feel free to message me.
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Sorry to read that Rachel, I wouldn't trust the police or cps with anything, they will try any devious tricks to ensure a conviction. My OH Crown court pre trial hearing was postponed last Friday. We haven't got a new date yet.
Only good thing in our situation is that despite my OH having bail conditions that he couldn't live at home or have unsupervised contact with any u18s.
He now bizarrely has unconditional bail and is living back at home with our 2 children, social services interviewed us all when he was 1st arrested, but we've never heard anything from them since. Over 15 months ago
Only good thing in our situation is that despite my OH having bail conditions that he couldn't live at home or have unsupervised contact with any u18s.
He now bizarrely has unconditional bail and is living back at home with our 2 children, social services interviewed us all when he was 1st arrested, but we've never heard anything from them since. Over 15 months ago
There were bits and pieces in our trial which effectively led to the judge requesting that the prosecution consider a charge of outraging public decency and if not a re-trial would've been ordered. This was to do with prosecutions evidence and also the investigating officer making unjust statements on the witness stand. How on earth they manage to carry out huge murder trials like the Lucy Letby one which contains thousands of pages of evidence when they can't get simple cases heard like these is absolutely mindblowing!