How criminal justice works. @TheCriminalBar. Vice chair ⁦ @PriorKc ⁩, Mary Prior KC

Vice chair ⁦Mary Prior KC

How do you represent someone who you know is guilty? That’s the question we are asked with either curiosity or disgust again and again. What is often being asked is, how can you defend someone who you think is guilty but who is telling you that they are not guilty.
Criminal cases begin with written statements being taken by the police which are provided to the court and the defence. Experience teaches us that what is written on paper may seem overwhelming but when that evidence is tested and probed in the witness box more information comes to light which shows things differently. Sometimes cases which seem the weakest on paper are far stronger than they first seem and vice versa. For example, those accused of murder, when evidence is carefully examined, may be demonstrated not to have actually been with the victim, or a victim may in fact have been assaulted but died of natural causes. It is not for us to have closed minds. Our role is to challenge the evidence and test it.

In rare cases an accused person has pleaded not guilty and told us that they have in fact committed the crime. Then there are strict rules as to what we can and cannot do. The law is that in every case the prosecution must prove that a defendant is guilty. We are permitted to test the evidence to ensure that the prosecution have reached that standard. For example, in an assault case, we can check that the prosecution have proved that the defendant assaulted the victim and that the harm caused was either some harm or really serious harm. What we cannot do is put forward a false case, such as that the defendant was not there or was acting in self defence. This limited defence rarely works.

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