I have just come out of a Police Station where a Client has been refused bail. The Client was a youth who had been arrested for possession of cannabis, who made full admissions, but who could not be given a reprimand or a warning because he was a persistent young offender.
A wet behind the ears Police Constable then suggested on charge that bail should be refused as my Client had been charged with the same offence 10 days before, and because he had breached a supervision order two months ago. He suggested that this amounted to evidence that further offences would be committed prior to the Court appearance.
The Custody Sergeant was having none of my bail representations and took no account of the fact that my Client had no antecedents for offences committed whilst on bail, or even failing to appear. I felt like I was talking to a brick wall and after ten minutes I stopped talking to be told my Client was to remain in custody.
Once my Client had been locked up in his cell the Custody Officer then had the cheek to ask me to repeat my bail representations as he had not been listening to what I had said!
9 comments:
Doesn't the custody officer have a duty to listen?
They are charged with making an important decision with respect to the subject and I would have thought there would be some minimal common law standard that they should have to apply, that would include listening followed by some albeit basic reasoning.
He does have a duty to listen but he did not seem to be doing so!
He has guidance in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act on what to consider. My opinion is that he did not listen to the arguments and the case should have resulted in the Client being released on bail.
There are so many people, police,professional, and judiciary,who haven't quite grasped the underlying principles of the Bail Act. As for the tabloids, the Act might as wellnot exist.
How true Bystander, how true...
Gavin Was your client remanded in custody? If he was for this offence I would suggest his antecedents is worse than suggested.
As a point of interest where i work the vast majority of bail refusal are subsequently remanded in custody despite the lenghty representations of their solicitors
At Court he was dealt with so the case came to an end.
I will always make representations on bail to Custody Sergeants in the full knowledge that they are likely to refuse bail.
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