We represented a vulnerable young adult who had been charged with offences of possession with intent to supply class A drugs and possession of criminal property, namely a large quantity of cash. These offences dated back to when our client was only 17 years old. It was the Crown’s case that our client was seen by the police in an area well known for drugs supply. When the police approached, he discarded a package which was later recovered and found to contain a quantity of class A drugs. In his police interview, at which he was not represented by GT Stewart Solicitors, he made admissions that he had been selling drugs in order to clear a debt. Despite this, he was not referred to the National Referral Mechanism by the police.

We became instructed after our client had been charged with these offences. We insisted that our client was referred to the National Referral Mechanism by the officer in charge of his case. We later received a positive reasonable grounds decision from the Competent Authority. We instructed Dr Alison Conning, a psychologist, who confirmed just how vulnerable our client actually was. We also instructed Dr Grace Robinson, an expert in labour exploitation, criminal exploitation and county lines drug supply, who provided extensive evidence about how young people are exploited by organised crime groups. She concluded that our client was in fact a victim of child criminal exploitation at the time of the alleged offences. In addition to this, we made extensive disclosure requests in order to obtain evidence which supported our client’s case.

We subsequently served our expert evidence and drafted lengthy written representations to the Crown Prosecution Service in which we argued that in accordance with their own guidance, the case should be discontinued on evidential grounds. Following consideration of our representations, the Crown Prosecution Service offered no evidence against our client in relation to all matters and formal not guilty verdicts were recorded.

Our client was represented by Sabrina Neves, a solicitor in our specialist Youth Justice Team and in Court, by Elena Papamichael of Garden Court Chambers