A crown court judge spoke of his frustration at releasing an attempted murder suspect yesterday after witnesses were too frightened to attend court to testify against him.
A crown court judge spoke of his frustration at releasing an attempted murder suspect yesterday after witnesses were too frightened to attend court to testify against him.
Speaking a day after Britain's most senior policeman, Sir John Stevens, warned that the criminal system treated victims with "utter contempt", Judge Jonathan Geake was left questioning the system in which he worked.
Forced to throw out charges of attempted murder, causing grievous bodily harm and intimidating a witness, he recorded formal verdicts of not guilty against Jason Jones, aged 31. But he told Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester: "One wonders whether in the end justice has been done. I can say no more about it but it doesn't mean the case doesn't leave a nasty taste in the mouth."
Mr Jones was charged with the attempted murder of a teenager left close to death with a fractured skull but in the end walked grinning free from court. At yesterday's hearing – a retrial, after a jury failed to reach a majority verdict last year – youths aged 14, 15 and 16, a couple and two women were due to give evidence. They claimed they had heard Mr Jones talking about the alleged hammer attack.
But when only two of them turned up, the Crown Prosecution Service indicated that it had consulted with the victim's family and decided "somewhat reluctantly... to offer no evidence on all the charges".
The victim, who had been found lying at the side of a road in Failsworth, Oldham, in May last year, suffered a broken jaw and a depressed fracture of the skull. Before the attack, he ran up to two men in the street to confront them for verbally abusing his mother. He was hit about the head with the hammer and punched by his attackers, who left but returned to the scene and then ordered two women who tried to help the boy to go away. They were then alleged to have stamped on their victim.
Tests found the victim's blood on Mr Jones' T-shirt and shorts and said there was "extremely strong" scientific evidence of his presence during the attack. David Friesner, for the prosecution, said: "Strenuous efforts have been made to bring the witnesses to court, to no avail. It seems... one or two witnesses had been contacted, then seemed to disappear. It was proving impossible to get them to court. There was a suggestion that they were in fear of giving evidence – perhaps in fear of the defendant."
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Monday, 11 October 2010
Judge speaks of his 'frustration' as yet another trial collapses - Crime, UK - The Independent
