Justice
These are from local Youth Courts.
A lad appeared before the Youth Court and not surprisingly, after pleading guilty, he is told to report to the Youth Offending Team’s representative within the precincts of the court.
For whatever reason, things kick off and the youth is excluded from the court building. He is in fact subject to an exclusion order imposed by the court.
He returns to the court in response to his bail. The court officials, in accordance with the exclusion order, refuse him entrance and he goes home. His case is called on, and not surprisingly, miladow is nowhere to be seen. The magistrates issue a warrant not backed with bail. The warrant is duly executed and the lad arrested. He is detained overnight and appears before the court the following morning where he is charged with an offence of failing to attend court on the appropriate day!
Eventually the whole story is unpacked and the offence under the Bail Act is discontinued!!!
Number 2
A juvenile girl is charged with handling stolen goods (hair dye). During the proceedings, there is a gathering of the clan in Jarrow and they all get legless. Police are called, but they are unable to sort out who assaulted whom. They are also in difficulty in finding “a person of reasonable firmness would fear for his/her safety”-the elements of the offence of affray. The only charge the police could look at because there is unlikely to be a complaint of assault from the injured party). They pass the matter on to social services who spirit the girl to Scotland to live with sober and restrained relatives.
On pleading guilty, the court take the view that the custody threshold is not met; a 4-month Detention and Training Order being inappropriate for handling hair dye. The girl is in breach of a discharge for similar matter. However, none of the sentences in the Crime and Disorder Act can be implemented across the border. There is no Youth Offending Team, no Reparation Orders, Action Plans, Supervision Orders, Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programmes (ISSP’s) and the like, beyond Hadrian’s Wall! Apparently in Scotland Youths who transgress for less serious matters are diverted through family type courts designed to put them on the straight and narrow. Not flogged and named and shamed in the Shields Gazette. The result is another conditional discharge.
Number 3
A local solicitor recounts this. As Duty Solicitor, she represented a client who lived near London. One night she, the client, was involved in a 'domestic'. The offending male was duly arrested. But whilst the victim was in her local nick giving a statement, a warrant for her non-appearance at South Tyneside was discovered. Apparently the court had been writing to her old address asking her to attend to face a "drunk and disorderly" allegation, an offence for which a defendant cannot be incarcerated. She had been found guilty in her absence.Apparently the court had announced that she was to be fined but issued a fail to appear warrant anyway because she hadn't paid her existing account. The court does not have power to do this. The client, visibly pregnant, was kept in the police station in Basingstoke. A request was made to Group 4 to transport her to the 'palais de justice' in South Shields. Group 4 duly transported her from Basingstoke in her nightie but she arrived in the afternoon and the court refused to take her. After another night in South Shields police station she duly appeared and was informed of her sentence. As it was a fine she was released but with no money to get back to Basingstoke. I would not like to have been him when she got home. Seriously though, what a waste of cash! She owed less than £150 in outstanding fines.
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posted by Tony @ Sunday, December 12, 2004
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