Regina v Francis; CPS Leicester, Regina v: CACD 21 Dec 2006

Whilst in custody in the police station, the defendant was visited by the police surgeon. He was accused of causing racially aggravated harassment, alarm or distress after abusing the doctor. The Crown appealed acceptance of his defence that the cell was for the time being his residence under section 31 of the 1986 Act which provided that an offence would not be committed by the use of such words by a person inside a dwelling.
Held: The prosecutor’s appeal succeeded: ‘A police cell is not a home. It is not ‘other accommodation where a person lives’, even though a person detained in a police cell may from time to time do the same things which he or she may do in this own home, or in the place where he or she lives. The judge was accordingly wrong to rule that the police cell came within the exception to subsection (2) of section 4A. A police cell is a place where a person is detained in custody, not a place which a person occupies as living accommodation.’

Judges:

Lord Justice Moses, Mr Justice Goldring and Judge Martin Stephens

Citations:

[2007] 1 WLR 1021, Times 17-Jan-2007, [2006] EWCA Crim 3323

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Crime and Disorder Act 1998 31(1)(b), Public Order Act 1986 4A

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

CitedThe Director of Public Prosecutions v Distill Admn 8-Sep-2017
Dwelling did not include the garden
The DPP appealed by case stated from a decision dismissing a prosecution for racially aggravated use of threatening words or behaviour. Both parties, neighbours, had been in their back gardens when the defendant was said to have shouted racial . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Crime

Updated: 09 July 2022; Ref: scu.248005