Chloe Birch successfully challenges youth prosecution for perverting the course of justice

Chloe’s 17-year-old client was charged with perverting the course of justice by allegedly providing incorrect PIN numbers to a phone in connection to a murder investigation, in which her brother was a defendant. He was later convicted after trial. A number of months later, she was further additionally charged with failure to comply with a section 49 Notice under RIPA (Regulation Investigatory Powers Act) 2000, by allegedly failing to provide the PIN numbers when later re-questioned.   

In her detailed preparation of the case, Chloe identified that during the interviews and investigation process, a number of PACE breaches had arisen which cumulatively had an extremely prejudicial impact on the evidence relied upon by the Crown against her young client at trial. Through written legal argument, Chloe submitted that the contravention of PACE in relation to a youth in police custody rendered any evidence obtained in that interview process inadmissible.

Following the submission of written representations with regard to the handling of the investigation, in combination with written legal argument on the PACE breaches, the Crown Prosecution Service have now discontinued the case on both offences.

Chloe’s client had turned 18 years old during the process of the proceedings.  Chloe was instructed by Stephanie Mavromatis from Sperrin Law.

Related articles from Carmelite Blog:

Representing Youths in the Crown Court: A look at the recently published Youth Defendants in the Crown Court bench book

A tale as old as time”: crossing the significant age threshold into adulthood