This essay can be helpful for your CIE A levels, AS level, exams or even first year law degree. All my essays have been marked by my lecturer and given good grades! This essay was awarded top in the class marks (English legal system)
Under s.30 of PACE, an arrested person must be brought to a police station as soon as
practicable after an arrest, unless their presence is necessary elsewhere for an investigation.
Upon arrival at the police station, suspects are taken to the custody officer who decides if there
is sufficient evidence to charge a person. If there is already sufficient evidence, the suspect
must be charged and released on bail, unless there are reasons not to. This includes unknown
name and address, or the suspect may have committed an offense on bail. If so, the suspect
must be brought before the magistrates as soon as practicable. Under Code of Practice C, a
person must be cautioned on arrest before being asked any questions regarding suspected
involvement in that offence. The Caution has been changed since the right to silence was
abolished in the CJPOA 1994 to ‘You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence
if you do not mention when questioned anything which you later rely on in court. Anything that
you do say may be given in evidence.’
If there is insufficient evidence, suspects can be detained for the purpose of securing evidence,
often through questioning. PACE allows suspects to be detained without charge for up to 96
hours. Time limits prevent the police from detaining suspects for an unreasonable amount of
time. During the first 6 hours, the custody officer assesses grounds for continued detention, then
again at intervals of not more than 9 hours. Police can detain a person for up to 36 hours from
the time of arrival at the police station. Continued detention for a further 12 hours can be
authorised by a police superintendent. Further continued detention for up to 96 hours is possible
with approval from the magistrates court. The custody officer is entirely independent from the
investigation, whose responsibility is for keeping the custody record and checks that the
provisions of PACE in relation to detention are complied with.
According to s.60 of PACE, interviews must be audio-recorded and then later written up to be
kept on file. The taping of interviews is designed to protect suspects from aggressive police
methods or falsification of evidence.
S.56 of PACE states that upon arrival at the police station, a suspect is entitled to have
someone such as a relative, informed of their arrest. This right may be suspended for up to 36
hours if the case is an indictable offence where there are reasonable grounds to believe that
telling the named person of the arrest will lead to the interference with witnesses or destruction
of property that would be evidence of the offence.
S.58 of PACE provides that a person held in custody is entitled to consult a legal advisor
privately and free of charge. This is done usually by telephone to the Criminal Defense Service
Direct. Those accused of an imprisonable offence can see a lawyer in person. In R v Samuel,
an appellant detained for 6 hours and denied access to a lawyer confessed to an armed
robbery. His confession was inadmissible in court as the denial of access to legal advice was
unjustified. In R v Alladice, the Court of Appeal found that delaying access to a solicitor was a
breach of s.58 of PACE, but the circumstances did not make any difference to the suspect's
knowledge about his rights, thus his convictions were upheld.
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