JUST2020 Criminal Law for Policing - Assignment Three

PORTFOLIO - INITIAL INFORMATION:

You and your partner respond to a radio call from an anonymous informant to attend a noise complaint of persons fighting in a nearby street. You attend an address and find two males rolling on the ground and grappling with one another on the front lawn of the front house on a battle-ax block. (a battle-ax block is one where there are two houses, one behind the other which share a common driveway).

You separate the males and identify them as Fitzwilliam DARCY and George WICKHAM. Mr DARCY resides in the front house and Mr WICKHAM resides in the rear house.

You and your partner speak with the males separately. You observe redness to the left cheek of Mr DARCY. After conferring with your partner, you arrest Mr WICKHAM and charge him with Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm under S.59 of the Crimes Act 40/1900 NSW. When offered the opportunity to be interviewed by you, Mr WICKHAM speaks with his solicitor and exercises his right to silence and refuses to be interviewed. You arrange for Mr DARCY to attend the police station to make a statement. Mr WICKHAM is subsequently granted conditional bail by the Custody Manager with conditions protecting Mr DARCY. The matter is listed for Mention in court in several weeks’ time.

See STATEMENT of Fitzwilliam DARCY available on vUWS.

This is a two-part assessment as explained below. In Part One you are to write a letter. In Part Two you are to write a report. You are to submit both parts together in one document via TURNITIN by the due date.

PART ONE:

You are the solicitor for Mr WICKHAM. Review the statement of the alleged victim, Mr DARCY (available on vUWS). Write a letter addressed to the Commander of the Police Area Command in which the alleged assault occurred (It’s fictitious. Make the address up!)

In your letter request that the charge of Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm be withdrawn and outline reasons why the charge is deficient.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The Brief Handling Manager has been given the letter from Mr WICKHAM’s solicitor by the Commander and speaks with you about the matter. She suggests that you speak with Mr WICKHAM’s wife about their altercation and that you conduct a brief canvass of the neighbours checking for witnesses or CCTV footage giving independent corroboration in support of the charge, before you respond to the letter.

In your canvass, you identify and obtain a statement from a neighbour who states that they were the anonymous informant who called the police. They live across the road two houses down. In their statement they state that they heard yelling from the general direction of the battle-ax block and therefore looked out the window. They saw Mr DARCY throw the wheelie bin in the path of the reversing vehicle. They saw Mr WICKHAM get out of the car and inspect the rear left of his vehicle before walking out of view onto the front lawn. They did not see any fight as they went to call the police. They have previously seen Mr WICKHAM reversing at speed down the driveway.

You speak to Mrs WICKHAM who did not see anything and declines to make a statement. She tells you verbally that Mr DARCY threw a bin at her husband.

PART TWO:

It is quite a common practice for defence solicitors to write letters to police making representations about the perceived weaknesses of prosecution evidence. In such circumstances, the Commander of the Police Area Command will request the arresting officer to write a report in response to the issues raised in the letter and making a recommendation. It is ultimately the Commander’s decision whether to withdraw or proceed with a charged. They make that decision based on the advice of the arresting officer and that of the local Prosecutor

Write a report in the I.B.C.R. format (available on vUWS & explained in tutorials). In the report, you are to respond to the issues raised in the letter of Mr WICKHAM’s solicitor. You are to assess the strength of the brief of evidence and to provide a recommendation to your Commander. You may recommend that the current charge is appropriate and should proceed at court or you may recommend that it should be replaced by an alternative and more appropriate charge. Alternatively, you may recommend that the charge be withdrawn altogether.  Ensure that you explain the reasons for your recommendation.

You may write 1500 words in total between Part One and Part Two. Submit both parts together via the TURNITIN link.