We represented a child who had been charged with a racially aggravated public order offence. It was the Crown’s case that our client had racially abused a police officer.

Our client was a child of previous good character. At our client’s first appearance, we made submissions that the case should be adjourned so that we could make representations to the Crown Prosecution Service. The Court agreed.

Following the hearing, we worked with all of the professionals involved with our client and quickly established that our client was very vulnerable. Whilst our client’s chronological age was approaching adulthood, cognitively, our client was functioning at the age of a child below the age of criminal responsibility. In light of this, we made representations to the prosecution that firstly they had insufficient evidence to prove their case, arguing that our client wouldn’t have been able to form the necessary intention, and secondly, that it was not in the public interest to prosecute our client for this offence.

After considering our representations, the Crown Prosecution Service withdrew the charge against our client meaning that our client remained a child of good character.

Our client was represented by Sabrina Neves, a solicitor in our specialist youth team.