Victoria Taylor's client acquitted of kidnap.

Victoria represented a 16-year-old boy who was accused of kidnap and robbery. The Crown alleged that the boy, along with his 15-year-old co-defendant, had forced another teenager down an alleyway, assaulted him, and coerced him on to the back of their e-scooter. The complainant alleged that he had been forced to go to multiple shops and cashpoints around central London to withdraw cash.

The complainant gave live evidence at the two-day trial in Bromley Youth Court. A police officer purported to recognise the two defendants from CCTV footage in the area and used this as the basis for an ID parade. The complainant positively identified the defendants in the ID parade, but this was some 4 months after the event. Using the Turnbull guidelines, Victoria questioned the reliability of the complainant’s identification, particularly due to the delay.

After careful examination of the Unused Material, Victoria noticed that the police officer had deemed the CCTV footage not clear enough to use in the police’s internal Forensic Image Management System, which is used to circulate images of suspects for police officers to identify. This cast doubt on the veracity of his identification of the defendants from this CCTV footage, which was the basis for the ID parade. The Unused also revealed inconsistencies in the complainant’s physical descriptions of the perpetrators.

The District Judge agreed that she could not rely on the complainant’s identification, nor the police officers, and therefore could not be sure that the defendants had been correctly identified as the perpetrators. Both defendants were found Not Guilty.

Victoria was instructed by Sarah Wilson at MK Law.