Sir Stephen Richards acquitted : British Transport Police lose CCTV images / recording AGAIN

Lord Justice of Appeal, Sir Stephen Richards acheived some notoriety when he exposed his natty line in Calvin Klein "non-Y front" , non penis poking pants in court this week ( a fondness he shares with Tony Blair).

He also created a stir in legal circles when presiding over the appeal in the Divisional Court of the High Court into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, murdered at Stockwell tube station on 22 July 2005 by police officers who claim they mistook him for a terror suspect after following him for over 30 minutes. The appeal that was being considered was brought by de Menezes family (led by his cousin Patricia Armani da Silva), who wanted to quash a Crown Prosecution Service decision not to charge any officer with murder, manslaughter or any other offence.

Following a ruling in the Divisional Court the family can now ask the House of Lords to consider the case. Direct appeals from the High Court to the House of Lords bypass the Court of Appeal a process known as the “Leapfrog Procedure“.

On 19th January 2007, Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Forbes (he sent Shipman down) declared the de Menezes appeal case raised “points of law of general public importance” and certified that the High Court decision had raised 2 questions relating to human rights which the House of Lords might consider answering.

1. Is the Code of the Crown Prosecutors, compatible with Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

That article they point out, states that "everyone's right to life shall be protected by law".

2. The correct legal tests to be applied when the High Court reviews a decision not to prosecute.

Lord Justice Richards was also arrested by the British Transport Police on 19th January 2007.

Sir Stephen, 56, denies the charges of "flashing" on October 16th and 24th 2006, that were brought against him in March. He has not been sitting on cases in court since but has been working on paper applications and appeals drawing meanwhile huas handsome salary of £184,000 a year. He had also stood down from the chairmanship of the board of governors of King’s College School, London, pending the trial.

Timothy Workman, the UK's most senior district judge (what we used to call a Stipendiary Magistrate) for magistrates’ courts in England and Wales, decided after consultation with the deputy Lord Chief Justice, Sir Igor Judge, to preside over the trial of Sir Stephen Richards with two lay magistrates, Carolyn Mishon (doyenne of the Wimbledon Jewish Charity world and ardent theatregoer) and Dannie Jayes .

Sir Stephen Richards was acquitted today when it became apparent that CCTV evidence that could have corroborated the witnesses claims of indecent exposure could have been independently verified had been routinely wiped.

Judge Workman criticised the British Transport Police (who were of course involved in investigating the de Menezes murder and it's strangely parallel "loss" of CCTV recordings) for failing to investigate the allegation or to investigate it thoroughly.

"Had they done so, they would have been able to obtain closed circuit television from the train on October 24 and probably on October 16," he said.

Let's hope that Sir Stephen Richards doesn't decide to suicide himself.

AFTERTHOUGHT
It would of course be wrong to heap blame on the BT Plod, because if memory serves us right, hadn't Sir Ian Blair of that Ilk, Top Plod, prevented the independent examination of the murder scene by the IPCC for 5 days ? Very, Very easy to lose track of CCTV recordings, hard disks in circumstances like that my son. Very, very easy.

Mind you, the BTP do take action, in a Press release on their website they are seeking information about a man allegedly filming up a womans skirt at London Bridge . The Press Release was issued on 9th May 2007 - 55 days after the offence on March 16th. Anyway here's a picture of the guy from their CCTV of him. More >>>

Mr Justice Forbes sitting with Lord Justice Rix gave the landmark ruling that Mr Abu Mousa's case came within the Human Rights Convention (and hence HRA) because his death (kicked to death over 36 hours whilst blindfolded and tied up) had occurred in the custody of UK forces in Iraq.

A decision which was finally upheld by the House of Lords today. At the time (4/12/04) Lawyers for the Defence Secretary, slimeball ("I believe Saddam has WMD's) Geoff Hoon, had argued that the convention applied only in Europe and did not apply to British troops in Iraq. Mr Hoon also claimed that the Human Rights Act - which incorporated the European convention into UK law - could only be applied in UK territory.