Defendant policemen challenged as an abuse of process, the issue of summonses relating to events some 18 years earlier.
Neill LJ said: ‘The freeing of the Guildford Four and the comments made by the Court of Appeal attracted immediate and very wide spread publicity. We have seen, as did the magistrate, copies of the press reports. We have also been provided with video-recordings of television programmes and television news reports which were shown on October 19, 1989 and in the succeeding weeks. In addition we have had an opportunity to see video-recordings of later programmes broadcast in the course of 1990. It is right to say that much of the contemporary publicity was sensational, critical of the police and in some cases clearly hostile to the police. The comments that the respondents were liars provided headline news. I shall have to return later to consider the possible effect of this publicity on the prospects of a fair trial.’ and ‘In my judgment a clear distinction can be drawn between the publicity in the period immediately after the release of the Guildford Four and the reports and broadcasts after December 1989. The earlier material could have been prejudicial to a trial in, say, the first part of 1990. The later material on the other hand could not be regarded in my view as prejudicial in a relevant sense. Even in relation to the earlier material, however, I am quite satisfied that none of the publicity which I have seen could affect a fair trial in, at the earliest, the Autumn of 1992. A jury would be perfectly capable of deciding the case on the evidence without regard to what they might have seen or read three years or so before.’
Judges:
Neill LJ
Citations:
[1992] 95 Cr App R 9, [1993] 2 WLR 621
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Regina v Alan Martin (On Appeal From Her Majesty’s Courts – Martial Appeal Court) HL 16-Dec-1997
A civilian who was subject to military law whilst abroad was properly tried by a court-martial for a murder committed whilst abroad. The accused was the son of a serving soldier, and living with him, and subject to martial law. There was no inherent . .
Cited – Regina v Stone CACD 14-Feb-2001
The defendant appealed against his conviction in 1998 of murder based on a confession said to have been made to a fellow prisoner on remand. A witness supporting that confession said after the trial that he had lied under police pressure. The appeal . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Magistrates, Media, Criminal Practice
Updated: 06 August 2022; Ref: scu.183204