Is it wise leaving comments open on a live crown court prosecution?
Your lawyers may have "views"!
Ex-Sun journalist charged with handling a stolen mobile phone
An ex-Sun journalist has been charged with a computer hacking offence and also faces a second charge relating to the alleged handling of a stolen mobile phone. Ben Ashford, 34, had worked on Rupert Murdoch's tabloid newspaper, which is published by News International (since rebranded as News UK), for four years from 2006. " …
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Wednesday 2nd October 2013 10:38 GMT Dr Patrick J R Harkin
Re: Is it wise leaving comments open on a live crown court prosecution?
You didn't have reason to believe it was stolen and you had no intent to deprive the legitimate owner of possession so I don't see an issue. If you'd kept it for a month before handing it in - grey area. What bothers me is - does turning it on to see in the lock screen has contact info count as "using it without authorisation"?
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Wednesday 2nd October 2013 12:29 GMT David Lester
Re: Is it wise leaving comments open on a live crown court prosecution?
Patrick writes:
"What bothers me is - does turning it on to see in the lock screen has contact info count as "using it without authorisation"?"
Well, to put the icing on the cake. After handing the phone in, and getting a receipt ("We don't want you to be done for receiving stolen goods, do we Sir"), the WPC turned it on, and because the PIN wasn't in use, she rapidly found "Mum" under the contacts list.
The ensuing conversation "She did what? On the bus?" did not bode well for a happy Mother-Daughter reunion that evening!
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Tuesday 1st October 2013 16:43 GMT Anonymous Coward
Usual stitch up then
"May I remind all concerned that criminal proceedings against Ben Ashford will now be commenced and that he has a right to a fair trial. It is very important that nothing is said, or reported, which could prejudice that trial."
...then going on to make the charge sheet and the name of the person charged publicly available and planting the seed of guilt.
Right to a fair trial would be no information available to the public until after the trial.
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Tuesday 1st October 2013 16:48 GMT diodesign
Re: Usual stitch up then
"then going on to make the charge sheet and the name of the person charged publicly available and planting the seed of guilt"
In the overwhelming majority of cases, adult criminal charge sheets are a matter of public record (speaking as a former court press reporter who used them to fill in columns of space on newsprint). And it's made clear these are all allegations and, of course, as a right-thinking Briton you know that everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
It sounds harsh to run someone's details so early on during proceedings just because they've been charged, but without publicly available information our judicial system would dissolve into a Kafkaesque nightmare.
C.
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