Today was my first day back at work after a summer break. Despite being on holiday I still received numerous telephone calls whilst I was away from my office so I have kept up pretty much with what is going on with my cases whilst I have been out of the office.
Perhaps one of the most important things that happened whilst I was away was the not guilty verdict one of my Clients received for his multi handed trial for riot and violent disorder. I have mentioned this particular case before as it involved viewing thousands of hours of CCTV footage.
During the course of this case the Prosecution produced various DVDs of the various defendants involved in various nefarious acts. One defendant, who was found to be unfit to plead and subsequently no evidence was offered against him, was seen to pull CCTV cameras from the ceilings and then run around a court yard swinging the camera in to various windows thereby destroying them. He was also seen to run about mooning at the cameras. My Client was not seen to do much other than go in to a meeting room with other defendants who were convicted of riot, and wander around by a gate holding a piece of wood for a few seconds. He certainly was not seen to get involved in any violence or damage any property.
In order to present my Client in the best light I took the Prosecution footage and edited it, and my edited footage was played to the jury. Despite spending what might have been close to half a million pounds (possibly more) the Prosecution did not notice my edits, even though they were served with a copy of my edited footage, and the jury seemed to think that my Client was innocent.
Seven defendants were put on trial and only my Client and another walked away with not guilty verdicts. I am glad to say that after 12 months of work including an 8 week trial my efforts and Counsel's efforts paid off. I am still not convinced that my Client did nothing wrong, he always had a certain look in his eye when I questioned him about events.
2 comments:
Well done. Another violent criminal who will not get punished at court.
Lets hope next time he murders somene then you really can get some decent money.
Anonymous,
This particluar Client was put through the criminal justice system and was found to be innocent. This Client was on trial for a riot. I did make the comment that I was not sure that the Client was completely blameless of something, but the evidence certainly did not suggest he was guilty of a riot.
If the might of the Serious Crime Directorate at Scotland Yard, and the Serious Crime Unit at the Crown Prosecution Service in Central London is not enough to secure a conviction then it is probably due to a lack of evidence, and not for a want of trying.
You comment that my Client is another violent criminal who is not going to be punished - that is because a jury of your peers decided that he was not guilty of the various charges laid against him.
If you do not like the fact that the trial system is capable of 'not guilty' findings then you probably have an unrealistic view of our current justice system.
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