I'm sitting here in the Magistrates' common room in Court writing this.
I've been here since 09:00 and as of this moment I haven't done a stroke of work.
One of the dock officers has suffered a heart attack. We know not what state he is in but wish him well.
In the meantime, my part heard trial can't go ahead because there are not enough dock officrs to provide custodial services for either the remand court or indeed, my trial court.
The defendant in my case has now been on remand in prison for so long that EVEN if he's found guilty, which is far from being the likely outcome, and EVEN if we were to throw the maximum sentence available at him, he will have served more time on remand than his sentence could possibly be. Don't forget, that's assuming we found him guilty.
We may not be able to continue with the trial today as the contractor supplying the dock officers can only get replacements to our court from Southampton.
Our legal advisor is due to retire next week and because the trial is part heard, all the original personnel involved must continue with the second part of the hearing. The only alternative would be to abandon the trial and re-start it from scratch, which would mean a new trial starting in six to eight weeks.
In the meantime, the defendant has no more bail applications left so would have to remain remanded in ustody until the new trial. At that rate he will have served the equivalent of a 10 month sentence remanded in custody for an offence which carries a statutory maximum sentence of six months.
How, in the name of god, can this state of affairs be called justice?
I've been here since 09:00 and as of this moment I haven't done a stroke of work.
One of the dock officers has suffered a heart attack. We know not what state he is in but wish him well.
In the meantime, my part heard trial can't go ahead because there are not enough dock officrs to provide custodial services for either the remand court or indeed, my trial court.
The defendant in my case has now been on remand in prison for so long that EVEN if he's found guilty, which is far from being the likely outcome, and EVEN if we were to throw the maximum sentence available at him, he will have served more time on remand than his sentence could possibly be. Don't forget, that's assuming we found him guilty.
We may not be able to continue with the trial today as the contractor supplying the dock officers can only get replacements to our court from Southampton.
Our legal advisor is due to retire next week and because the trial is part heard, all the original personnel involved must continue with the second part of the hearing. The only alternative would be to abandon the trial and re-start it from scratch, which would mean a new trial starting in six to eight weeks.
In the meantime, the defendant has no more bail applications left so would have to remain remanded in ustody until the new trial. At that rate he will have served the equivalent of a 10 month sentence remanded in custody for an offence which carries a statutory maximum sentence of six months.
How, in the name of god, can this state of affairs be called justice?
Paul
Cogito ergo sum... maybe?
Click the image to go to Nano-Meet Website
Cogito ergo sum... maybe?
Click the image to go to Nano-Meet Website
