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Summary BPTC Preliminaries to Prosecution - Criminal Litigation and Sentencing
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Bar Course Revision Notes (Outstanding Score) - Preliminaries to Prosecution - Criminal Litigation and Sentencing
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PRELIMINARIES TO PROSECUTION PACE governs exercise of police powers from stop and search, to arrest through to detention and charge.
Much of the fine detail is left to the Codes of Practice. For exam only need to know C (stop and search,
treatment, detention and interviewing of suspects).
All criminal prosecutions are brought in the name of the Queen.
DPP is the head of the CPS (essentially) and must takes over conduct of criminal proceedings instituted by
police.
Failure by police officer to have regard to PACE Codes ø of itself amount to offence or civil wrong, but can
affect fairness of the proceedings and the admissibility of evidence. See PACE s.67(10).
Arrest and caution
Caution must be given to a person ‘whom there are grounds to suspect’ of an offence. There must be some reasonable
objective grounds for the suspicion, based on known facts or information (e.g. not an excuse that officer got the law
wrong). To be reasonable, it cannot be emotional and cannot be based on a hunch. But it can be based on tip-off or
logical surmise. Whether there are sufficient grounds for caution is an objective question, ø depend on individual police
officer. Note this is lower test than reasonable grounds to believe (arrest).
To arrest, officer must have both reasonable grounds for both:
(i) Suspecting the person has committed, is committing or about to commit an offence, and
(ii) Believing the arrest is N to achieve a legitimate objective.
In this respect, reasonable suspicion is the lower standard, it can take into account matters which are not admissible in
evidence. Reasonable belief is that required to establish prima facie case which must be based on admissible evidence.
Use of force during arrest:
Officer can use reasonable force if N in the exercise of power. (Note taking intimate sample always requires
consent).
Civilian may use reasonable force in same was as constable; or such force as is reasonable in the prevention of
crime, or in effecting or assisting the lawful arrest of an offender or suspected offender.
Court will consider: nature and degree of force used, gravity of the offence, harm that would flow from use of
force against suspect and possibility of effecting arrest by other means.
Note §10.1: Caution must come before ‘interview’.
“a person whom there are grounds to suspect of an offence must be cautioned before any questions about an offence, or
further questions if the answers provide grounds for suspicion, are put to them if either [their] silence or answers may be
given in evidence to a court during a prosecution”.
A person does not need to be cautioned if the Q are for other N purposes:
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