Wasting Time
Mike Knowles
Below is a report of a recent trial at the Crown Court in Eastbourne that appeared in the
Law Review.
The Law Society have expressed some alarm and the report, which contains
extracts of Defence Counsel Rowan-Berry QC’s...
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Wasting Time
Mike Knowles
Below is a report of a recent trial at the Crown Court in Eastbourne that appeared in the
Law Review.
The Law Society have expressed some alarm and the report, which contains
extracts of Defence Counsel Rowan-Berry QC’s cross-examination of the main witness
for the prosecution, Detective Inspector Goosegog, is reprinted below.
ROWAN-BERRY: Detective Inspector, would you agree that the deliberate
reporting of a false crime in order to waste police time is, in itself, a genuine offence.
GOOSEGOG: Yes.
ROWAN-BERRY: I see.
And being an offence you are therefore obliged to
investigate it?
GOOSEGOG: That’s right.
ROWAN-BERRY: So one could argue that the time spent on this matter has
not been wasted because it has led to a prosecution.
JUDGE: I think I can see what you’re getting at.
However, in this
instance it is merely the time the police spent dealing with the false crime that was
being wasted.
ROWAN-BERRY: I don’t wish to labour the point, Your Honour,
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