Prosecutor’s appeal against dismissal of charge of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour. Officers stopping youths in street and searching for drugs. The defendant had challenged the admission of statements said to have been made at the scene by the defendants under Code C. After exclusion of the admissions, the prosecutor had offered no evidence, but now appealed.
Held: the provisions of Code C, Part 11, are not directed at what a suspect is alleged to have said as part of his conduct constituting the offence, but what he is alleged to have said of a self-incriminatory nature on or after arrest for it. Otherwise, all offences of a public order nature in which words spoken are a necessary or possible constituent of the offence, in whole or in part, would engage Part 11 of Code C, quite independently of and before any possibility of an interview, or ‘unsolicited comments outside an interview’ could arise.
Citations:
[2007] EWHC 2154 (Admin)
Links:
Statutes:
Public Order Act 1986 5, Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Crime
Updated: 12 July 2022; Ref: scu.259638
