Nasreen Shah, instructed by Taylor Rose MW, was successful for her client, charged with racially aggravated harassment and criminal damage, resulting in the Crown discontinuing both charges.
At the first instance, the officer in the case notified the client that the Crown withdrew the charge of racially aggravated harassment and a new requisition was issued. At the first appearance the Crown then sought to rely on the old charge. The defence strongly disputed that the Crown could rely on a charge they withdrew at the first instance and was now out of time. The Crown was directed to engage with the OIC and provide the Court with a reasoning for the change in charging decision. This direction was not complied with.
The defence also made representations that the OIC was provided with exculpatory evidence which would demonstrate that the Crown’s initial charging decision had no merit.
In relation to the criminal damage, Nasreen advised her client to make enquiries with the land registry as to ownership of a border wall. It was said that the wall could only be modified by agreement between the neighbours. This was not done here. Therefore, the structure mounted on the wall by one neighbour that protruded onto the property of the client was illicit. It was also confirmed that no planning permission had been in place. Nasreen made submissions in brief to the Court that the client could not damage his own property. Alternatively, he acted in defence of his property.
Due to the Crown’s lack of response to any of the submissions and desire to proceed with both charges, Nasreen advised the court that the matter ought to be put down for an abuse of process argument and submitted a preliminary skeleton to Court.
Following the matter being listed for an abuse of process argument the Crown made the decision to discontinue both matters.