We represented a client who had been charged with offences of possession with intent to supply class A drugs, possession of class A drugs and possession of a bladed article. The Crown’s case was that our client had thrown a package which was later recovered and found to contain a large quantity of class A drugs. The Crown relied on the evidence of a police officer who alleged that he had witnessed our client discard the package. Our client accepted that he had a knife in his possession but denied that he had discarded any drugs.
Prior to the trial, we made representations to the Crown that they did not have sufficient evidence to prove their case, however, they maintained that they were proceeding with the case against our client. Our client maintained his not guilty pleas and we proceeded to produce frame by frame stills of the officer’s body worn footage which in our view, contradicted the evidence of the Crown’s key witness.
On the first day of trial, there was complex legal argument including an application to adduce our client’s previous convictions for offences of the same kind, which were ultimately admitted as evidence. Through meticulous cross examination, it was established that the Crown’s key witness in fact had not seen our client throw the package as he had first alleged.
Following a four day trial, our client was unanimously acquitted of all four charges by the Jury in just under an hour.
The Crown applied for a Knife Crime Prevention Order in light of our clients guilty plea to possession of a bladed article. This was opposed in full and the Court refused to impose the Order.
Our client was represented by Sabrina Neves, a solicitor in our Croydon Crime Team, and in Court by Archie Manby one of our in house Higher Court Advocates.
