Undercover police were agents provocateur
The defendants appealed against their convictions for aggravated trespass, saying that the police had infiltrated their environmental protest group, and that the undercover officer had acted as agent provocateur to entrap them into the offences. Their defence had been one of justification.
Held: The appeals succeeded, and the convictions were quashed. The officer who had infiltrated the group had taken steps beyond those allowed in his instructions to the point of making it arguable that he had acted as agent provocateur, and to protect his identity the police had withheld recordings of meetings from the CPS and defence and which would have been of assistance to the defence: ‘These materials were pertinent to a potential submission of abuse of process by way of entrapment and in any event they had the capacity to support the defence of necessity and justification. The trial was rendered unfair and the convictions are unsafe.’ A subsequent prosecution was stopped when the officer’s role was revealed. The prosecutor had then encouraged the defendants in this appeal.
Judges:
Judge LCJ, Treacy, Calvert-Smith JJ
Citations:
[2011] EWCA Crim B3
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Regina v H; Regina v C HL 5-Feb-2004
Use of Special Counsel as Last Resort Only
The accused faced charges of conspiring to supply Class A drugs. The prosecution had sought public interest immunity certificates. Special counsel had been appointed by the court to represent the defendants’ interests at the applications.
Cited – Regina v Jones (Margaret), Regina v Milling and others HL 29-Mar-2006
Domestic Offence requires Domestic Defence
Each defendant sought to raise by way of defence of their otherwise criminal actions, the fact that they were attempting to prevent the commission by the government of the crime of waging an aggressive war in Iraq, and that their acts were . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime, Police
Updated: 28 January 2022; Ref: scu.442023