The Rusty Wire Service

A recent report in the Law Gazette informed readers that “Criminal Law Solicitors Association committee member Robin Murray said he had been shocked when a serving officer told him the police had ‘got wise’ to the fact that they do not need a solicitor present if they interview suspects at home.” On the ground in South London, this reporter isn’t particularly shocked at that kind of carry-on and can personally verify several instances of police interviews or attempts to interview suspects (and their family members) beyond the confines of the police station. A criminal practitioner at a busy South London firm told this reporter that they had professional experience of this kind of conduct from investigating officers.   Richard Atkinson, chair of the Law Society’s criminal law committee, accused police of circumventing the Police and Criminal Evidence Act1984 (PACE) by interviewing suspects at home without a solicitor present. (The suspect’s right to consult a solicitor i...

"The problem with you is you will always be a nigger.” This was a London Metropolitan Police officer’s frank assessment of a young man being arrested Newham in the city’s east end in the aftermath of last August’s riots. Nearly 20 years after the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the wilfully botched investigation of his death, it’s painfully clear that racism within the Metropolitan Police force remains deeply problematic. The problem, expected to have been laid to rest with the implementation of the McPherson report's findings, is proving rather resilient. It would certainly be prudent to pay closer attention to the conduct and attitudes of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) who are also clearly failing in their duty to administer impartial justice to a community where belief in the integrity of this state’s government or any of its agencies is straining credulity to breaking point. The case of Mauro Demetrio is illustrative not only of racism within the pol...