Family and Friends Forum

Hi Caggie - although every case is different and timescales vary between authorities, I would hazard a guess that at this early stage your OH is looking at a bail extension, this time for 6 months. He might get notice of this and a new date by phone call from the OIC or perhaps a letter, although sometimes a personal visit is expected. It seems to vary a lot. Before charges are ready all the devices have to be checked and then all the findings sent to the CPS to decide if a prosecution is likely to be successful so at this early stage and in my limited opinion, it's too early for much progress to have been made for you just yet.

When bail was first fixed it was signed off by the local bail officer but this time it has to be signed off by a more senior officer, and each time it has to go to someone more senior until a magistrate has to OK it, which doesn't make the police look very efficient so sometimes at that point the person has bail dropped and is 'released under investigation' instead. That is our personal experience anyway, although the police do have powers to extend bail indefinitely if they think that's required I believe.

I know it's all so stressful wondering if something huge is imminent in the case's progresss, and for some things do still seem to be processed more speedily, but the norm seems to be 'wait, wait and then wait again'!

Incidentally, when bail is being renewed it's the best time to challenge any conditions which seem to be disproportionate or which make life tricky (eg not allowed to go into the family home when the person normally works from there) and this is where having your own solicitor can be useful, although I don't think that there is usually much of a success rate doing this and of course the solicitor would charge a small fortune to do it with no guarantee of success. And if children are involved and bail conditions about access to them disappear, Children's Services would become much more involved.

As usual I'm writing an essay when you didn't ask for one, so I'll stop - can you tell I used to be a teacher? :)

My oh was constantly extending for nearly 18 months the only time he went station was second interview and charges so he probably won't need to go in they normally just extend and let them know

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Blue sky - I remember reading about this, maybe it was your post. I'm horrified that the police seemed to resent having to drop bail and found their own workaround in your case. Did you get any insight as to the reason why they took that line of action?

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