Lord Blencathra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Blencathra on 2016-02-08.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will discuss with the Director of Public Prosecutions the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to take Mark Pearson to trial for sexual assault, and the claim by the defence solicitor in that case that the CPS initially provided amended and misleading video evidence to the court.

Lord Keen of Elie

The CPS’s function is not to decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offence, but to make fair, independent and objective assessments about whether it is appropriate to present charges for the criminal court to consider.

The CPS assessment of any case is not in any sense a finding of, or implication of, any guilt or criminal conduct. It is not a finding of fact, as this can only be made by a court, but rather an assessment of whether there is a realistic prospect of conviction and, if so, whether the public interest lies in prosecuting.

It is open to the defence in any crown court case to argue, after the prosecution has closed its case, that the evidence is too weak for the decision to be left to the jury. In this particular case the judge clearly considered that the decision was properly a matter for the jury.