CROWN COURT TRIAL

CROWN COURT TRIAL
SYLLABUS REFERENCE:
2. Plea in the Magistrates’ Court, allocation for trial and committal for sentence,
 Sending indictable only and either-way offences to the Crown Court for trial
 The committal/sending of linked summary only cases and the procedure for dealing with them in the Crown Court

7. Preliminaries to trial in the Crown Court
 The plea and case management hearing in the Crown Court and its importance to case management,
 Arraignment,
 Special pleas, autrefois acquit and convict (key principles only)
 Pleas to alternative counts, offering no evidence and leaving counts to lie on file,
 Preliminary and pre-trial hearings in complex and serious and sensitive cases, including the powers of dismissal of
transferred and sent cases.

9. Jury trial procedure
 Judge only trials (key principles only),
 Proceeding in the absence of the defendant,
 Abuse of process in the Crown Court (key principles only),
 The law and practice relating to juries, including the circumstances when individual jurors or the whole jury can be
discharged,
 Procedural steps in a jury trial, including submissions of no case to answer, formal admissions and reading statements
(including the refinement in the Galbraith test),
 Dealing with points of law during the trial, including the procedure for determining the admissibility of evidence,
 Speeches,
 The content of summing up,
 Verdicts, including majority verdicts and conviction of a lesser offence,
 Retrials,
 Costs after trial (key principles only).

READING:
Required reading
 CLS Crim Lit Manual 2014, Chapters 11, 12
 Blackstone’s – see Reading List SGS 10
 LGS 6 – Crown Court Trial




Summary of the session
• Preliminaries to Crown Court trial;
• Crown Court trial;
• Verdicts.

Introduction:
 All adults first hearing is in the Magistrates Court MCA 1980 s2(2)
 However, if the offence us triable only in the Crown Court the accused must
be sent to that court for trial.
 Triable either way the accuse will be sent to the Crown Court for trail only if
the accused indicates or deemed to indicate:
o A not guilty plea at the PBV hearing and the allocation (Mode of trial
(‘MoT’)) heating that follows results in a decision in favour of Crown
Court trial in either case, the case is sent for trial to the Crown Court
of an accused, namely the voluntary bill of indictment

Sending cases to the Crown Court
[See section 4 – Plea before Venue, Mode of Trial and Classification]



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,Sending indictable-only and either-way offences to the Crown Court
Most of the cases which are dealt with in the CC are dealt with initially in the Mags
Court. So there has to be a mechanism to remove the matter from the jurisdiction of
the Mags into that of the Crown Court

Situations with regards to moving cases to the Crown Court:
1. Indictable-only offences are simply and swiftly sent to the Crown Court
under s 51= sending for tiral

2. CDA 1998, S50A (3) In either-way offences where the D has indicated a not
guilty plea and either the magistrates have decided that it is more suitable for
him to be tried on indictment (s 21 MCA 1981) or the Defendant wishes to be
tried on indictment (s 20(9) MCA 1980) the magistrates’ court will then
proceed under s 51 and send the offence to the Crown Court
3. Serious fraud cases and violent or sexual cases involving child witnesses are
sent to the Crown Court under CDA 1998 s 51(2)(c) and 51B or 51C
4. Other “related” offence may also be sent for trial at the same hearing as the
primary indictable offence is sent, or at a later hearing. So other either-way
offences and even summary offences may be sent for trial in certain
circumstanced under CDA 1998, s 51(3)(b)

 S 50A (3) – sets out various steps which must be taken where the offence is
triable either way (unless notice under 51B and 51B)
a. PBV: indication to plead Guilty or Not Guilty
b. Not Guilty Plea; MoT/ allocation procedure
i. P and D (if the D wish) make representations as to whether
the case is suitable for summary trial and
ii. the court then decided whether to accept jurisdiction and
offer summary trial to the accuse
iii. if mag declines jurisdiction, or if accused elects the trial on
indictment then case will be sent to the Mag under s51

S 51 – Crime and Disorder Act
 S 51 – only applies to indictable-only offence – so e.g. someone charged with
murder would make a single appearance in the mags court and be sent to the
Crown Court for trial there and then
 Where an adult appears or is
o Where a D aged over 18 or appears before the Mags court charged with
an offence which is triable only on indictment (an “indictable only”
offence) he must be sent to the Crown Court for trial “forthwith” (s 51(1)
and (2)(a)

Consequence:




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,  If the accused is charged with an indictable offence there will not be any
question as to the mode of trial in respect of any related either-way offences
which the accused is charged

Application about s 51
S 51 CDA 1998
Where an adult appears before a magistrates' court:
 Charged with an indictable-only offence; or
 Charged with an either-way offence where the mode of trial hearing resulted in a
decision in favour of trial on indictment; or
 Notice has been given to the court under s 51B (serious or complex fraud cases)
or s 51C (certain cases involving children);

‘the court shall send him forthwith to the Crown Court for trial for the offence’.

Purpose:
 Establishes the procedure for the transition for all indictable only offences
o They spend no time in the magistrates’ court other than the first hearing
 This reduces delay in the criminal justice process and is consistent with the
active management of the case that the Crown Court now has, through the Plea
and Case Management Hearing.

Sending related offences for trial (either way and summary)
If D is sent on the primary offence under s 51(1), and appears In the same occasion
if he is also charged with:
 A triable either way offence that is related to the indictable only offence; or
 A summary offence that is related to the indictable only offence and which is
punishable with imprisonment or disqualification from driving,

Then the magistrates must also send him to Crown Court for trial on those charged
(s 51(3).

If the D appears on a subsequent occasion in the Mags court, charged with an either-
way or summary offence which appears to be related to the offence for which he
was sent for trial, the magistrates may send him for trial on the either-way or
summary offence (s 51(4))

Duties when sending for trial under s 51:
 Sent for trial under s 51:
o Copies of the documents on which the charges are served on the D and
court, within 70 days of the date sent for trial (50 days in custody)
 The draft indictment must be served on the CC within 28 days of service on the
D of the evidence upon which the charges are based

Sending other Defendant’s for trial (Co-accused)


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