Expert advice at police station leads to robbery case being dropped
In this case our client was acquitted even though his co-defendants pleaded guilty. Our client who is 14 years old was arrested with 7 others for two serious allegations of knife point robbery. At the police station most of the co-accused gave accounts placing themselves at the scene. They denied being involved and blamed each other for the offence. Our client denied the allegations we advised him at the police station and he relied on his right to silence. He did not place himself at the scene.
After the police had interviewed all the suspects they made a decision to charge everyone with conspiracy to commit robbery. The police did not have any strong independent evidence and relied on what all the suspects had said about the incident when they had been interviewed on tape. Most of the co-accused had created problems for themselves due to what they had said on tape and so pleaded guilty to the allegation.
Our client denied the offence and pleaded not guilty. Representations were made to the CPS that the case against our client was evidentially weak as they could not prove that our client had been present at the scene of the robbery, let alone any involvement in the robbery. The CPS reviewed the case and made a decision to drop the prosecution against our client.
Jamie Ritchie partner in the Criminal Department did this case.