QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
THE ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
Strand London WC2 |
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B e f o r e :
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DERRICK WALPOLE | (CLAIMANT) | |
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DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS | (DEFENDANT) |
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Smith Bernal Reporting Limited
190 Fleet Street London EC4A 2AG
Tel No: 020 7404 1400 Fax No: 020 7831 8838
(Official Shorthand Writers to the Court)
MR T MOUSLEY QC (instructed by CPS) appeared on behalf of the DEFENDANT
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Crown Copyright ©
"Where an accused is sent for trial under section 51 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, the maximum period of custody between the accused being sent to the Crown Court by a Magistrates Court for an offence and the start of the trial in relation to it shall be 182 days, less any period, or the aggregate of any periods, during which the accused has, since that first appearance for the offence, been in the custody of the Magistrates Court."
It is that provision which on the facts of the present case is in play.
"(i) The learned judge wrongly extended the custody time limit:
(a) without proper enquiry into the statutory requirements set out in section 22(3) of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985:
(b) without providing a judgment on the issue:
(ii) He wrongly prioritised an existing trial (transferred from a different court centre due to administrative difficulties at that centre) over this application when that trial would have had to continue into another day in any event;
(iii) Even if neither of the above are sustained the decision was made against authority given that neither the judge, the Court centre or the trial date had been found or were ascertainable."