A Crown Court judge has questioned practising solicitors’ general knowledge of the law after he was forced to spend 45 minutes unravelling what he described as a Crown Prosecution ‘mess’.
Judge Geraint Walters was waiting to pass sentence on a defendant at Swansea Crown Court yesterday afternoon (Friday), however the documentation which he had received from the CPS failed to add up.
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As a result, the defendant awaiting sentence had previously pleaded guilty before a magistrates court to charges which were subsequently amended by the CPS.
“This is the seventh time that this defendant has appeared before a court in relation to these charges but I don’t care whether it’s the seventieth,” commented Judge Walters.
“My job is to get it right.
“I’m beginning to wonder whether anyone knows the law these days? Should Judges have to deal with this sort of thing, because I’m getting tired of it.”
Barristers representing the Crown, the defence, the court clerk and Judge Geraint Walters subsequently spent three quarters of an hour resolving the issue before Judge Walters was able to proceed with passing sentence.
“Some buffoon in the CPS got it completely wrong which is shabby, shabby, shabby,” he continued.
“But this seems to be happening on a regular occurrence. I haven’t been inside a Magistrates’ Court for many years but when I did, there wasn’t a single lawyer who didn’t carry a copy of Stones Justices’ Manual.
“But I know of lawyers these days who might ask ‘Carry a copy of what?
“It’s otherwise known as the Bible of the Magistrates Court.”
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