We represented a young adult who had been charged with supplying Class A drugs. He was only 16 at the time of the offence and was charged two years after he was arrested. Our client accepted that he had supplied class A drugs however, on the basis of his instructions, we had concerns that he was a victim of child criminal exploitation. We advised our client to enter a not guilty plea to the offence and we instructed Dr Grace Robinson, an expert in child criminal exploitation, who confirmed that in her expert opinion, there was evidence to support our concerns. We obtained telephone evidence from the Crown which contained messages that supported our client’s account and we later received a positive conclusive grounds decision from the Competent Authority. A week before our client’s trial was due to begin, the Crown Prosecution Service offered no evidence against our client on the basis that they had insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction and a formal not guilty verdict was recorded.

Our client was represented by Sabrina Neves, a solicitor in our specialist Youth Justice Team and in Court, by Alex Rooke of 5 St Andrews Hill.