Giving Evidence in Court - The Trial

come on was lost oh honey I can see it Hudson it's always a good idea to meet any additional witnesses outside the court but acceptance money yeah yeah okay we're just waiting on word here we go what I want to know I just had a word with the defenseless no changes so we're all okay everybody okay okay all rise morning your worships your worships the first case on your list this morning is number two - one Reichenbach limited can I have the names of the prosecutor and the defense please yours Lestrade dirty rushes from prosecution henry baskerville from sign how solicitors representing the defense worships thank you gentlemen who is representing the company in this matter mr. Moriarty he's the managing director of Reichenbach Limited and is authorized to speak on their behalf I think it could you take your place on the stand please mr. Moriarty the defendant enters the stand and the charge is read to them for a company just as in the formal interview an authorized representative of the company must be present to speak on its behalf mr. Moriarty on the 4th of May this year at premises at Grimpen mire Industrial Estate West midsize you did reprocess controlled substances without appropriate authority contrary to regulation 30 the defendant has elected for trial in the magistrate's court but if the magistrates think that the charge is too serious or they cannot pass sufficient sentence they may commit the defendant to Crown Court before the trial can start all remaining witnesses must leave the court you cannot hear any of the proceedings until you have given your evidence will all remaining witnesses please leave the court the prosecution may ask for an expert witness to be allowed to stay in court if the defense of no objections and the magistrates agree then there can remain throughout the trial nuestras at this point I'd like to make an application for mr. Hudson to remain in court throughout the duration of the proceedings mr. Hobson is here to give evidence of opinion not that of fact and to assist you worships in arriving at your conclusions my friend has an object I can confirm we have no objections your worships an expert witness is someone who appears for the court they are a person who because of special experience or study can help the magistrates by giving opinion on technical matters and on the evidence heard in court the prosecuting solicitor makes an opening statement outlining the case the facts and the witnesses to be called any admissions of fact agreed by the defendant are also included in this opening statement the prosecuting solicitor can refer to relevant statutory provisions authorities decided case law which are essential to the case and will preempt any defense submissions of no case to answer at the end of the opening they will summarize those matters that the court needs to decide after the prosecution opening they will call their witnesses as I said USU's there are seven witnesses in this case this morning you'll see three of those witnesses before you who will give the their evidence the other four statements my friend has kindly agreed and I think it will be appropriate at this stage that I read perhaps the first of those statements which sets the scene and this is the statement of one Irene Adler agreed witness statements are read to the court there is no set time during the proceedings when this has to happen some prosecutors prefer to do them all at the beginning of the prosecution case some all at the end or some like in this example as and when they come up during the other evidence and they said that the matter would be investigated if I could enter that into court gentlemen OSHA thank you if I could call the first witness that you'll hear from this this morning who worships mr. Martin Morstan mr. horse think I'll be next probably the magistrate's normally call people in pods of Lords thank you chuckle what's going on are you ready yeah think so it's what the things you need to remember okay follow the assure to the witness box look at the solicitors when they ask the questions but give the answers to the magistrates and don't ramble on and use jargon ask permission if I want to refer to a notebook oh yeah the prosecutors on our side yeah good to go everything is your phone switched off yes fair enough here you go looks like you're wrong miss Watson you ready for you now not to sell her sweet words in the comments if you have no religious belief or follow a religion that forbids you to take an oath or even if circumstances make it impracticable to administer a particular oath then you can affirm the usher will ask which you prefer and give you a card with the appropriate words the author affirmation should be read slowly and with sincerity if will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth remember first impressions are being made of the witness even caught your full name please Josephine Watson good morning officer will you just explain to the court what your role and responsibilities are and who you work for and I'm an enforcement officer working for West Machias the prosecutor will get the witness to confirm their identity and relevant qualifications and experience and we're working on the 4th of May yes we just tell the court what happened that morning and oh wait 30 hours and I received a call the prosecutor will take the witness through the evidence in their witness statement this is called the evidence in chief the defense will also have a copy of the witness statement and as a result of that information what did you do I went to the site Reichenbach Limited did you go alone no I went with my colleague officer Holmes they have a number of premises I believe where I came back limited which particular premises did you did you visit it was gripe amaya Industrial Estate on Conan Road I have here officer a location map perhaps the officer could have a look is that is that a map that you prepared yes and you were start to be entered into evidence yes could enter that is jw1 okay thank you for that officer and what did you see when you entered the premises when we got there we could see that it was a really bad incident so there was lots of things to do so we drew sketch plan we took photos and which samples and bagged and tagged and ID to fill in the sir one form because the samples I thought will probably need sending us like officer officer please could you just slow down I am trying to take some notes and I don't want to miss any of you your evidence and and also please could you address the bench directly yes sorry just whilst we're here you keep saying we if you could just restrict yourself to your evidence please I'm sure we'll hear from your colleague in due course and lastly officer there's a lot of jargon I'm not entirely sure what we're talking about so if you could just restrict the use of jargon please it's very easy to get carried away when giving evidence but calm down and speak slowly so the legal adviser can take proper notes they will stop you if you speak too quickly or fail to address the bench and this can be very disconcerting they will also challenge use of the third-person restrict your evidence to just what you did if you were accompanied by a colleague then you can say that but the court wants to hear your own first-hand evidence be very careful about using jargon slang and acronyms as the court will stop you and this will knock your confidence sorry mr. Lestrade nice okay can we just go back a little bit flare up one or two points that you've made um you said we went to the site of the incident who who is the we that you refer to myself and my colleague officer Holmes attended at the site were you together throughout this visit yes so you mentioned photographs under plan who took the photographs who drew the plan I took the photographs and I also drew a sketch plan if you just take a look at this officer would these be the photographs that you took and the plan that you drew yes these are photographs Gerry w7 215 a good prosecutor will help you get through your evidence properly remember don't be flustered and take your time you just take the plan amount hold it towards the worships and perhaps explain to them what that plan shows this shows the site of the incident and the X's on the plan show where the photographs are after you took the photographs what did you do then and after I'd taken the photographs I took samples which I bagged and tagged with which I sealed in sample bags with unique reference numbers to be sent off later for analysis are there any references with respect to those samples yes and may I refer to my notebook when did you make the notes officer at the time your worships please go ahead have you any objection to the sophists using a notebook the defense has no no objections your honor you may in that case officer refer to your notebook remember officer it is to refresh your memory don't just read from it now do you want me to repeat the question no that's fine thank you I took two samples whilst I was in attendance at the incident and the first one at 11:15 a.m. which I placed in sample bag reference II a one to four and a second sample at 11:30 a.m. which I placed in sample bag reference ei one to five and what happens to these samples after you take them and they were sent to the laboratory for analysis and what did the analysts say the analyst said that they were the worst example of that type of sample that you'd ever seen and that in his experience it was must have been a very severe incident and and that the people who commit your worships I must object this hearsay for this is for the analyst to say not an officer we haven't received no notice as a defense of any hearsay evidence being brought in this case he is say that is passing on someone else's evidence is not normally permitted but because of a change in the rules it can be allowed providing notice has been served on the defense and either the defense have not objected all the objection has not been accepted by the court generally avoid hearsay unless agreed with the prosecutor first yes we agree will disregard that statement most oblige your worships perhaps if we believe that that bit out officer I think that's it as far as I'm concerned officer thank you for for that evidence of no I've no further questions but please remain in the witness box I'm sure my friend will have some questions that he wishes to put to you thank you good morning officer did you sample the substances using the industrial standard procedures no because the industry standard so you didn't use the standard procedures I didn't use the standard procedures no you didn't Thank You officer I now want to ask you about your second visit to the site on the afternoon of the fourth of May 2011 where you've stated in your statement that you saw miss Moriarty at the door of the site office where were you standing at this time of the sighting I was standing at the corner of the main building that's nearly 50 meters away according to your own plan that you've produced and given to the court you're not wearing glasses officer do you have any vision problems and I have reading glasses but I don't have any long distance vision problems so the yard was busy that morning lots of vehicles moving about people hurrying to sort out this incident are you telling me you had a clear vision without anything obstructing your view well there were some vehicles and people other people so you can't really be sure can you officer this is cross-examination the defense solicitor will probe and test various parts of the evidence and leading questions are allowed it can be tempting to argue with the defense by all means stand your ground and do not let the mold your evidence into something that suits them but don't try to be clever and don't try to defend the indefensible if they expose an error on your part concede the point and move on similarly if the defendant has been cooperative or done some positive act then acknowledge it you told my friend that you conducted an interview with mr. Doyle the site manager you read to the court the notes from your pocket notebook that is correct how long was it and what sort of questions did you ask and they were initial questions about the incident so you wouldn't call it an interview did you caution mr. Doyle well no I didn't caution him because they were just initial questions so it wasn't like a proper interview and why not officer you've already said that you suspected the offenses being committed and that mr. doar might have had some involvement with that offense the defense solicitor can apply to have evidence excluded if they believe it has not been properly obtained can I refer to your ways you've just said that the fact you said it wasn't a proper interview your are your worships may I tell you that my client wasn't cautioned about any offenses being tried and the fact that it wasn't a proper interview would also tend me towards the fact that sir it is not submissive all as evidence yes the bench agrees will disregard the interview with mr. Doyle I have no further questions for the yet for the witness after cross-examination the prosecutor can re-examine the witness but only on matters that have been brought up by the defense under cross-examination my friend asked you in cross-examination if you'd followed the industry standard sampling procedure and he said that you didn't why was that the industry standard sampling procedure can only be used when the certain circumstance is in place so it involves that there's a controlled environment and it's not possible or practical to carry out and use that procedure and during a live incident thank you for that officer I've no further questions so this at this point after any re-examination the magistrate's have the opportunity to question the witness if they require clarification on anything the witness is given in their evidence we yes we were need some clarification on the plan that you provided the the crosses are they the locations from where the photographs were taken or are they the locations of the scenes that the photographs depict and the the crosses show where I was standing when I took the photographs and the arrows show the direction I was facing and the point of the arrow is where refers to the actual photographs where the photographs are off right thank you yes that clarifies them to that point yeah I have no further questions nope okay Thank You officer now you may you once the witness has been stood down they are free to remain in court they must make no contact with witnesses yet to be called to give their evidence the court will take a grave view if there was any suggestion that witnesses had discussed the questions asked by the defense solicitor at the lunch break and show that witnesses who have given their evidence dined separately from those still yet to be called consider taking an extra person who isn't a witness in the case to court that way the last witness is not left alone outside the court there have been rare occasions when witnesses have been threatened when left alone mansion was made of the representative of the defendant company mr. Moriarty did you see mr. Moriarty on site yes that's correct and are you sure that it was mr. Moriarty and yes that it seems to Moriarty on site I have met him before professionally previous convictions or a poor compliance history our evidence of bad character and should not be mentioned unless this has been agreed beforehand with the prosecutor who as with hearsay evidence will have had to serve notice on the defense that character evidence will be given and he worships now refer to my pocketbook for detail your worships my exam in the pocky notebook the defense is entitled to look at relevant pages from the pocket notebook so always ensure that what is written is true accurate and professional if they believe the notes were not made at the time they can object to the office of being allowed to refer to their book your worships I have no objections to the use of cocking oval I believe that you and your colleague conducted an interview with a representative of dry combat limited is that correct and that's correct we cannot an interview back at our offices subsequently with the defendant company and that was tape-recorded unicorns with normal post procedures and did you caution the defendant during that interview yes the comedian defendant was caution before interview using our normal pro forma sheets always read cautions to suspects while you should know the words of the caution if you read it there can be no debate as to whether the caution was properly administered would you say you are an experienced officer and yes that's correct when you serve the code be notice how did you identify yourself to mr. Doyle my show mr. doll my warrant count are you sure officer because looking at the notes that you made in your notebook I've just seen there is no note to that effect I didn't make a note of that as it's a routine procedure I carry out whenever I meet an individual in a formal setting why didn't you sign the tape seal officer I neglected to sign the tape seal and Brad did make a detailed record of interview in my pocketbook at the time I never signs on my part and but the signature of the defendant was on the tape to verify its accuracy acknowledge mistakes don't try to argue when an obvious error is pointed out the process continues until all prosecution witnesses have been called remember it is up to the prosecution to establish a person's guilt not for the defense to establish their innocence after the completion of the prosecution case the defense can if they wish make a submission to the court of no case to answer effectively that the prosecution have failed to prove all the elements of the charge the prosecution can make a submission on any relevant points of law at this point but it is not allowed to go over their evidence again if the magistrates have any reasonable doubt and accept the defense submission then the case will be dismissed and the defendant will be acquitted however if the magistrate's do not accept the submission or if no submission is made then the case is allowed to continue at this point the defense may choose to change their play to guilty if they choose to present their case then there will call their witnesses to give evidence and now the prosecutor is allowed to cross-examine their witnesses once the defense have completed their case the magistrates will consider their verdict now mr. Bane's would you help us with a few points of law please it certainly works quiet please mr. Moriarty will you take your place on the stand please we've listened very carefully to the facts of this case and we find the defendant guilty as charged the reason being that we found that the prosecution is established beyond it under human rights legislation not only is the verdict delivered but also the reasoning behind the magistrate's decision this is part of the defendants right to a fair trial your worships at this point I would like to make an application for prosecution costs the prosecution has incurred costs of some five thousand pounds in the preparation of this case after the verdict has been reached the prosecutor has the opportunity to raise any previous convictions with the magistrates as well as applying for prosecution costs the magistrate's may take into account previous convictions when fixing the sentence the prosecution was entitled to seek to recover the costs of conducting the investigation as well as the costs of conducting the case the prosecutor will normally seek to agree costs with the defense before the end of the hearing any award of costs is at the discretion of the court the court also has discretion to award compensation where where that the company has made efforts to ameliorate the effects of this of this incident but still feel that the seriousness of this crime warrants a fine of 20,000 pounds and the companies required to pay prosecution costs of a further five thousand pounds all rise and finally be careful not to get carried away with the emotion of the result continue to be professional at all times you

Channel: University of Derby

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Keywords: School Of Law And Criminology, case, derby, Tl, Study Materials, ford, ellis, law, court, criminology, of, evidence, trial, HD, university, magistrates, BCL

Id: trD6gtV4vQ4

Length: 27min 30sec (1650 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 30 2013