BPTC Law Notes BPTC Criminal Litigation Notes
A collection of the best BPTC notes the director of Oxbridge Notes (an Oxford law graduate) could find after combing through dozens of samples from outstanding students with the highest results in England and carefully evaluating each on accuracy, formatting, logical structure, spelling/grammar, conciseness and "wow-factor".
In short, these are what we believe to be the strongest set of BPTC notes available in the UK this year. This collection of BPTC notes is fully updated for recent exams, ...
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DISCLOSURE
Used and Unused Material
Used material = material relied on to prove indictment i.e. the case papers: WSs, exhibits, ROTI
Unused material = material NOT relied upon e.g. PC's pocket book, dead-end police enquiries, repetitive statements, crime reports
Investigator's Duty to Retain and Record Relevant Material
Investigator = police officer investigating crime
Duty to Record and Retain Relevant Material
Code of Practice (under Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act (“CPIA”))– makes investigator responsible for ensuring that any information relevant to the investigation is recorded and retained, whether:
gathered during the course of the investigation (eg. docs seized in search of premises), OR
generated by the investigation (eg. interview records)
Where any doubt about relevance of material, investigator should retain it.
Duty to retain particularly applies to:
Crime reports, report forms, relevant parts of incident report books and POs' notebooks,
Final versions of Witness Statements,
Draft versions of Witness Statements where content differs from final version,
Interview records (written or taped),
expert reports and schedules,
any material casting doubt on reliability of a confession,
any material casting doubt on reliability of a Witness.
Does not extend to purely ancillary items, eg. duplicate copies of docs.
Material must be retained at least until criminal proceedings are concluded
If Defendant convicted, must be retained until at least 6 months after conviction or until Defendant released from custody (whichever is later)
Offences going to Trial
Schedule of Unused Material
Where Investigator believes that Defendant is likely to plead NG at summary trial, or case likely to be tried in Crown Court, he must prepare a schedule listing material retained which does NOT form part of Prosecution case against Defendant.
Any sensitive material should be listed in a separate schedule (material which investigator believes not in public interest to disclose).
Material undermining Prosecution Case
Investigator should draw Prosecution's attention to any material which might undermine the Prosecution case.
The Disclosure officer
= responsible for examining records created during investigation and proceedings and disclosing material as required to the Prosecution or Defendant
Must certify that, to the best of his knowledge and belief, the duties imposed under the Code have been complied with
After Defence Statement
If Defence statement given, investigator must look again at the material retained and draw Prosecution's attention to any material which might reasonably be expected to assist the defence disclosed.
Later Material
If investigator comes into possession of new material, must comply with duties –
ie. draw to Prosecution's attention if material might undermine Prosecution case or reasonably be expected to assist the defence disclosed.
Prosecution Disclosure
Before statutory duty to disclose arises, Prosecution may be under common-law duty to disclose such material to the defence at an earlier stage,
eg. as it might help the defence in a bail application or to prepare for trial.
The test for disclosure
Main duty to disclose previously undisclosed material if it might reasonably be considered capable of
undermining the case of the Prosecution against Defendant; OR
assisting Defendant's case
If no such material – Defendant must be given written statement of this.
“Prosecution material” - material which Prosecution possesses or has been allowed to inspect.
“Disclosure”:
give to Defence, OR
allow Defence to inspect it at a reasonable time and place.
Disclosure must generally be carried out as soon as reasonably practicable.
Material must not be disclosed if Court concluded it is not in public interest to disclose it.
If Prosecution given doc indicating any non-sensitive info which has not been given to Defendant, this also must be given to Defendant at same time as primary prosecution disclosure.
Material to be Disclosed
Material should be disclosed which might give Defence basis for Cross Examination of a Witness or would support defence arguments that evidence inadmissible or proceedings ought to be stayed.
AG's Guidelines on Disclosure of Information in Criminal Proceedings: Prosecution should disclose any information which:
cases doubt upon the accuracy of any Prosecution evidence,
may point to another person having involvement in the commission of the offence,
may case doubt upon reliability of a confession,
might go to credibility of a Prosecution Witness
might support a defence that is raised by Defendant or apparent from Prosecution papers (whether or not consistent with defence all ready advanced by Defendant)
may have bearing on the admissibility of Prosecution evidence.
Previous convictions of Prosecution Witnesses ought to be disclosed (Vasiliou [2000])
Continuing Duty of Review
s7A – Prosecution disclosure duty includes continuing duty to disclose any unused material falling within s3
Prosecution must, until conviction/acquittal/dismissal, keep under review Q of whether at any time (particularly following disclosure of defence statement) there is Prosecution material which:
might reasonably be considered capable of undermining the case for the Prosecution against Defendant, or of assisting the case for Defendant, and
which has not been disclosed.
If there is such material, must be disclosed as soon as reasonably practicable
Where defence statement given, Prosecution must:
disclose any previously undisclosed material which now falls within s3, or
provide a written statement that there is no such material.
Notice of Additional Evidence
If Prosecution, after primary disclosure, wish to add a Witness/Witness Statement – must serve Witness Statement + “notice of additional evidence” on defence
no time-limit but must be done before trial
if serve very late so Defence do not have time to adjust case in light of Witness – Judge should...
Buy the full version of these notes or essay plans and more in our BPTC Criminal Litigation Notes.
A collection of the best BPTC notes the director of Oxbridge Notes (an Oxford law graduate) could find after combing through dozens of samples from outstanding students with the highest results in England and carefully evaluating each on accuracy, formatting, logical structure, spelling/grammar, conciseness and "wow-factor".
In short, these are what we believe to be the strongest set of BPTC notes available in the UK this year. This collection of BPTC notes is fully updated for recent exams, ...
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