Help and advice pls , Friend worried he may end up in court , looking for advice from those with past experinces of been in the court room pls.

[help-please]

For those of you at have been in the dock or attended a rape trial , can i ask a few questions..

1) in a 5 day trial , how long is the accused generally questioned for ? and what are the general events from day 1 through to day 5 ?

is there any advice / help online for been the one prosecuted and what to expect in court, how not to behave and how best to behave etc.

2) what type of questions do the barristers ask ? do they want to know all about your past history and events that have happened after the allegation (historic cases)

3) if a person is charged at a police station , then they attend the magistrates court (with the view of going to crown), do they read out your full home addresss in order to identify you , or is it by name and date of birth or all three ?

any other helpful advice would be great , he does not have a solicitor at present but does have one if the they decide to charge him , but he's keen to know more about things in general.

[LS]

1. I was in the dock for over 2 hours, spread from one day into the next.

As for how to/not to behave, it's fickle. There's no right or wrong answer, as what one jury will take as you being you, another will damn you for. I was determined not to let the other party's family see they were winning, and I came across as nonchalant. Needless, I lost.
Nothing to stop you crying in the dock, expressing anger, etc etc, but it's a lottery as to if you get a jury who are a) human and b) intelligent.

2. They just try to pick holes in everything you said in interview.
3. Name, address and date of birth is all asked of you in open court.

Sorry, know this isn't what you want to hear.

[help-please]

LS , thank you for you reply , i think full address is what is worrying him the most at the moment ,as his accuser does not have these details , i think it would make him not feel very safe , is there a way he can use a 2nd address.

with you been questioned for 2 hours, why do they need a five day trail on average for these kinds of cases ? what happens in the rest of the trial....

do they only question your statement you make in interview ? do they not ask questions about your life etc ? past and present ?

[LS]

I don't think there's any way to avoid the reading-out of one's address, it's a requirement of the courts.

Not sure about the whys or wherefores of needing a 5 day trial, but for mine a lot of it was dilly-dallying around, advice-taking between barristers, judge clarifying things etc. They didn't really ask questions about the past, only relating to the accusation. Trying to make things out of my statement, in other words trying to twist things. They weren't really interested in the past, other than to ask what my job was.

[Saffron]

Hi Help-please

Unfortunately your friend cannot avoid his address being read out. The judge has to ascertain that he has an address - if your friend refuses to give the judge might assume he is "of no fixed abode" and remand him.

Our trial lasted 2 days. Some of it was taken up with legal argument (which the jury were not allowed to hear) but most of it was testimony from the 4 (yes, just 4!) witnesses, one of whom was my husband (the accused). Court runs from about 10am until 3-3.30pm with an hour for lunch. Not a lot of working hours there!

When your friend arrives at court he will have to wait in the general area outside of the courtroom until the jury is sworn in. At this point your friend's barrister can ask for different jury members, depending on the case. An usher will call him in when his case is about to be heard and he will be taken to the dock by a security guard. His family and friends can enter the public gallery at this point, although they won't be invited to do so. His name and address will be read out and then the charge(s) against him. He will be asked to confirm his name and address and whether he understands the charges. He will then be asked how he pleads. At that point the trial will commence, usually with the CPS barrister making his/her opening address.

There are other opportunities for the defence barrister to object to the jury selection, but my memory is hazy at this point.

Hope that helps. I wish you luck.

[help-please]

Thank you both for your helpful insight into the process , do they also question the accuser in a trial , i seem to read different things when reading threads on this board , but i think that might differ based on the age of the accuser...

Can the address he gives be from say a family member or friend who have agreed he can have a room there , but still live at say from two properties? or must it be the address he is bailed to ?

[LS]

I think it's usually the address he's currently at when the trial starts.

As for questioning the accuser, yes they are questioned regardless of age. How the questioning goes is down to your barrister. Some take the line that they must not say anything which makes the accuser cry, as it gives her sympathy from the jury.

Some, as in my case, cried crocodile tears for that exact reason, even though my barrister was very very gentle with her.

[help-please]

thank you , i think i'm working back to front with this...

okay if he is charged , i assume he then will have to go to magistrates court for it to go to the crown court....or does it work slightly different , charged , then cps , then magistrates , then crown court .

if charged how quickly is he likely to be called to the magistrates ?

it would be helpful to see a general time line for the general process of events.

[help-please]

p.s ,would he have to give his full address at magistrates court also ? or can he offer a address where he can be contacted ?

[doubletake]

Hello

Hello, is full name adress will be read out to conferm who he is.

[LS]

The timeline is usually this:

1. Charge (at police station)
2. Magistrates (maybe a number of times procedurally) initially within 24 hours of charging.
3. Crown Court for trial. Charge to Crown Court can take as long as a year (as in my case).

[worriedfather]

Hope this helps

Hi Help please
I hope this helps you, sorry that you have had to find your way here. Once you have been charged then it is off to magistrates court as soon as possible. They then set a date for a trial, if you are remanded in custody then it is normally back to crown court within 2-3 weeks for a bail hearing.
I suggest that you ask for copies of all the statements, evidence, custody log etc. Print off a copy of PACE (police and criminal evidence act) and read through the bits about custody and interviews.
Read through all the statements, especially the accusers and highlight any discrepances. My son and i found wrong dates, wrong police station on police evidence. If there is any forensics then push to get it tested. Plod in my sons case were very reluctant to test the one piece of evidence that could get him off. Plod said it was irrelevant.....
Do not trust the police or the CPS, you should assume that they are corrupt and should not be trusted.
In my sons case CPS "forgot" to tell us that his accuser had made a previous allegation until 2 weeks before his trial... They then complained that we would delay the trial if we asked for more information... We delayed the trail.
The police "forgot" to tell the cps that a used condom had been found when my son was charged This was 20 mins after plod had been told.
good luck if you want any help we are all here

[Bigsister]

Hi Help please
I hope this helps you, sorry that you have had to find your way here. Once you have been charged then it is off to magistrates court as soon as possible. They then set a date for a trial, if you are remanded in custody then it is normally back to crown court within 2-3 weeks for a bail hearing.
I suggest that you ask for copies of all the statements, evidence, custody log etc. Print off a copy of PACE (police and criminal evidence act) and read through the bits about custody and interviews.
Read through all the statements, especially the accusers and highlight any discrepances. My son and i found wrong dates, wrong police station on police evidence. If there is any forensics then push to get it tested. Plod in my sons case were very reluctant to test the one piece of evidence that could get him off. Plod said it was irrelevant.....
Do not trust the police or the CPS, you should assume that they are corrupt and should not be trusted.
In my sons case CPS "forgot" to tell us that his accuser had made a previous allegation until 2 weeks before his trial... They then complained that we would delay the trial if we asked for more information... We delayed the trail.
The police "forgot" to tell the cps that a used condom had been found when my son was charged This was 20 mins after plod had been told.
good luck if you want any help we are all here

Hope you dont mind me asking, but how relivant is it that the accuser has made an allegation about someone else then? It only came out that my bros accuser had done that, the day he attended court. It has been postponed, but not because of that.
Should his solicitor be looking into that more then? She accused her cousin just before xmas, which is AFTER accusing my bro. The CPS wouldn't take it any futher with the cousin.

[doubletake]

Hi

Hello this is the basic time line

1. Charge (at police station)
2. Magistrates (maybe a number of times procedurally) initially within 24 hours of charging.

3 Crown court for Plea Case and manegement! this will set them a time line how how long the case will take

4. Crown Court for trial. Charge to Crown Court can take as long as a year.

[66dw99]

The general rule is that complainants in sexual offences have the right to lifetime anonymity but not the defendant unless s/he is a child in which case anonymity would normally extend to their majority. However, if the publication of the defendant's name would identify the accuser or other children in the family then anonymity may be granted by application to the court. Where it is simply a matter of the complainant being potentially identified (where the accused is say, a father), then there may be an order that the relationship between the defendant and complainant is not published, but that the defendant's name is given.