Ready To Roll.

As you probably know by now tomorrow (23/8/13) I've got to appear before Croydon Magistrates Court over this criminal damage nonsense. That means I've spent most of the afternoon preparing a file with which to brief my lawyer hence why the are sometimes known by the slang term "briefs."

In terms of the hearing you can come along and watch if you like. I can't yet tell you in exactly which Courtroom it will take place in but it is scheduled to start at 09:30 (local.) That said custody cases always take priority so if the local police spend tonight rounding up every they can think I might be left waiting there until the Court closes at 16:00 (local).

Being a mere procedural hearing though things will be very be very short and very boring. The prosecution will present its evidence to the defence and the three Magistrates. The defence will then present any evidence to the prosecution and the Magistrates. The Magistrates will then have to to decide if (a) They have the jurisdiction to hear the case and (b) if there is a case to answer. If they answer yes to both these questions I'll be asked to enter a plea, a trial date will be set there and then the prosecution will be given an opportunity to block bail. If the Court answers no to (a) but yes to (b) the case will be referred to another Court which will provide a date for another procedural hearing in the fullness of time. The prosecution will then be given an opportunity to block bail.

I've already explained the bail situation here; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/i-never-liked-glastonbury.html but to be honest it would be unusual for the prosecution even to apply to block bail.

Obviously it is not my job to explain to the Magistrates how they should answer those two questions. After all it will be interesting to find out how they interpret the decision today with unlawful imprisonment regarding the Full Sutton prison case or the starting of a criminal investigation based on data recovered from David (Carmen) Miranda's computers in that tedious Glenn Greenwald case.


19:50 on 22/8/13.

Edited at around 10:20 on 23/8/13 to add;

As predicted my appearance today before Croydon Magistrates Court was very short and very dull. Although my case was listed as 4th in Courtroom 8 it was bumped up to the second case heard. The first case was a simple begging case in which the accused plead guilty and was fined GBP20. It took all of five minutes.

After a quick discussion about whether first the prosecution and then the Magistrates would like to "retire" (meaning take a short break) after my case the Court decided that (a) they did have the authority to hear the case and (b) there was a case to answer. So I entered a guilty plea and trial date has been set for 14:00 (local) on 12/11/13.

As for the prosecutions case it has become even weaker. The hammer has not been submitted in evidence which is a polite way of saying that the arresting officers claim to have found glass shards on it was not corroborated by forensic analysis. It also avoids questions being asked about the manner in which the hammer was searched for and seized. Also no CCTV evidence has been submitted. This of course could be that there never was any CCTV evidence or it could be that the prosecution has decided that the CCTV evidence would hinder rather than help their case. As a result all the prosecution is left with is the statements of the two witnesses whose credibility is likely to evaporate very quickly under cross-examination. Therefore while I am very much opposed to it I suspect that over the coming months the witnesses will be coming under quite a lot of pressure to withdraw their statements.

The application for legal aid has been accepted so before the trial I will have at least one meeting with my lawyer. This is likely to lead to a rather bizarre defence strategy in which the defence is going to be trying to get the prosecution to enter more evidence.

(Originally Posted 22/8/13)