My Lords, I support what has just been said by the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, and the amendment tabled by my noble friend Lord Paddick. I apologise for not having been here right at the beginning of the debate. Reflecting something said by the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, I should state that although this issue affects a number of Members of your Lordships’ House, it affects multiples of ordinary people who are not Members of your Lordships’ House, who have been affected by regional publicity in such cases.
I am almost as dyed in the wool—indeed, dyed in the Welsh wool—a criminal lawyer as the noble and learned Lord, Lord Morris of Aberavon, and I recall two criminal trials in which I appeared that particularly disturb me. In one, which I prosecuted, the defendant was, to my enormous surprise, convicted and sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment, and had to wait a number of months before the Court of Appeal overturned the conviction on very good grounds. In the second, a case in which I defended, my client was convicted of a
number of offences and subsequently, after I had been sacked as his counsel, deservedly won his appeal. Those are just examples of the many cases up and down the country in which local and regional publicity has been a powerful driver.
I want to make two points—they are of quality—which were not covered by the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, either in his speech this afternoon or in the article he wrote on this subject, which I read a little time ago. The first relates to the quality of non-recent sexual offences. In relation to most offences on the criminal calendar, there is no doubt that a crime has been committed and the investigation is as to who committed that crime and whether that person interviewed was involved in that crime. In the case of non-recent sexual offences, it does not need me to persuade your Lordships’ House that there have been numerous allegations of offences which never occurred. The damage that can be done—wherein I move to my second point—when the police work on the assumption that the complainant, often called the victim, is telling the truth means that those cases are quite different. I am not making this up.
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The College of Policing guidance, as articulated by the person who is responsible for articulating that guidance, is that every complainant should be regarded as a victim. In other words, the assumption should be made that every complainant is telling the truth. People are therefore being arrested by the police for non-recent sexual offences on the assumption that they are guilty of the offence. In my judgment, and I suggest to your Lordships that it is a sound judgment, for there to be publicity available in such a case where the presumption of guilt, contrary to our law, is made by the police, is offensive to our jurisprudence and to reasonable views held by parliamentarians.
When a person makes a complaint, an investigation takes place, connections are perhaps made with other people and there is an evidential trail that justifies an arrest and a charge, that is the point at which publicity should be allowed. I suggest to your Lordships that judges are superbly equipped to adjudge cases where it would be appropriate for publicity to occur before a charge takes place. For example, if somebody in a children’s home comes forward and says, “I was in a children’s home with 150 other people over a period, I was abused by a member of staff in the children’s home whom I can identify, and I believe that if you can find them other people will give you the same sort of evidence”, that may, subject to the quality of evidence put before a judge, be a basis for a decision being made to allow publicity. Let us not forget how much responsibility, whenever it is convenient, this House and the other place puts on our judges these days. The separation of powers is slowly becoming frayed around the edges and giving this power to the judges in this class of case is perfectly acceptable.
My point is that the rationale behind my noble friend Lord Paddick’s amendment is that there is no injustice to be measured at least in disallowing publicity before charge, and there is palpable and often very serious injustice if people’s reputations are demolished simply by the fact that they have been arrested.