Judge criticises 'human cost' of CPS delays as man waits three years to be cleared
A Shropshire judge has warned of the 'human cost' of delays in the court system after a university student was finally cleared of all involvement in an attack – three years after it took place.
Judge Anthony Lowe, speaking at Shrewsbury Crown Court, criticised the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) over the amount of time it is taking to review evidence in cases awaiting trial.
The court heard that accused, who had been facing a trial on a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm related to an incident in July 2020, had completed an entire university degree while waiting for his case to come to court.
Judge Lowe said the CPS had been in possession of the evidence for 18 months, but had only on Wednesday(12) decided to offer no evidence – discontinuing the case.
After the hearing a CPS spokesperson said: “We have a duty to keep our prosecutions under continuous review while considering the evidence that is available at the time.
“As part of the continuing review process, we concluded that there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction in accordance with our legal test.”
Addressing the court Judge Lowe said the defendant was "completely innocent" and spoke of two other cases where the CPS had also decided to offer no evidence.
Judge Lowe said that in those cases the people involved had spent up to six months in custody, only to be told the case was being discontinued after the evidence was reviewed.
Addressing the court, Judge Lowe, said: "This is about the third case we have had where the prosecution has offered no evidence, and in two of them they have been in custody for the best part of six months."
He added that "something is going wrong" and said he suspected it was down to "a lack of resources in the criminal justice system".
But the judge said it was important to consider the impact of the delays on people's lives, warning that it was 'not good enough'.
He added that the overall delays in the criminal justice system mean that it is not only trials and sentences dates which are affected, but the length of time waiting to review evidence, leaving people with no case to answer with a prosecution hanging over their head.
Judge Lowe said: "Nobody should underestimate the human cost, particularly for someone of good character, but it is not just reserved to good character; anyone who faces a criminal trial in the crown court and has had this hanging over their head.
"The offence itself goes back three years and the prosecution has had the material available for some 18 months or more to arrive at this decision.
"Whatever the excuse, I am afraid it is not good enough and perhaps some pressure ought to be brought on those who make decisions about recruitment. It is no longer about backlogs of trials or sentences, we are now having a situation where the prosecution are doing the best they can but some people are waiting for a trial and only when it is in for trial is the evidence looked at more critically."
He added: "It should at least be publicly stated that the individual concerned played no part in whatever happened on July 25, 2020, and not only is it a verdict of not guilty, he is completely innocent of any wrongdoing on that evening."
The Crown Prosecution Service has been approached for comment.