Ed Cape, Matthew Hardcastle and Sandra Paul will explore the recent right to silence cases that they have covered in Legal Action (Black, Baker, Noor, and Harewood and Rehman) and the implications for advising at the police station.
The seminar will give a brief history of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 s34 and broad trajectory of the case-law and will go on to cover key themes in recent cases such as;
•- no requirement that police asked specific questions
•- jury entitled to infer that the police asked questions that should have prompted a response from the suspect
•- level of detail required in prepared statement if it is to avoid inferences
•- the relevance of the accused having 'lived through the events'
There will also be a discussion on the practical implications of the cases for defence lawyers, in particular
1- the length of interviews and whether and how to intervene
2- the level of detail to be covered in prepared statements
3- securing disclosure regarding evidence and previous interviews in order to assess what the suspect should disclose
4- dealing with an information deficit.