Jail inmates ‘plead guilty’ to avoid long court delays
PRISONERS on remand are choosing to plead guilty to avoid languishing in jail as Covid-related delays push back their trials, a top lawyer has revealed.
The courts shutdown last year has created a backlog of tens of thousands of hearings, with some prisoners facing waits of up to two years, according to legal experts. Data from the Scottish Prison Service shows the average number being held without trial on any given day rose from 1,251 in 2018-19 to 1,383 in 2019-20. The figure for last month was 1,734. Scottish law dictates that an accused must normally wait no longer than 140 days before standing trial, but this has been changed owing to coronavirus delays.
The Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service confirmed that cases are taking 12 months, on average, to go from preliminary hearing to trial.
But legal groups say some of their clients have been held for 14 months and face another year of waiting.
Ian Moir, co-convener of the Law Society of Scotland, told The Times: ‘When you are getting to the stage where you might spend 12 or 18 months on remand, there’s a danger people will just plead if they think that means they’ll spend less time in jail.
‘If it’s at the lower end and you might be facing 18 months, discounted to 12 for an early plea, of which you would serve six, why would you want to lie on remand for 18 months?’
Measures to tackle the backlog include the expansion of remote juries and the setting up of extra courts. Mr
Moir added: ‘This will progressively reduce the backlog each year and our modelling predicts that the backlog will be cleared by 2025.’
Julia McPartlin, president of the Edinburgh Bar Association, said: ‘The types of people who will be on remand will either have a previous conviction or be charged with a serious offence. But when someone is placed on remand there is an obligation to bring them to trial.
‘The focus is on High Court cases, but I do think sheriff and jury courts have been overly cautious about the number of jurors they assign to each sitting.
‘I don’t think these courts are being used to their full capacity.
She added: ‘In terms of Ian’s point about pleading, it is a valid concern. People often deny offences but say, “l’ll just plead guilty to get it over with”.’
Tony Lenehan, president of the Scottish Criminal Bar Association, warned that cases with several accused would be especially likely to stall as social distancing remains in effect.
He told The Times: ‘There are some big, nine-accused cases floating about. At the moment there’s nowhere in the court estate to deal with socially distanced big multiple cases. If you’ve got nine accused in the dock, plus security, and everyone is two metres apart, you would need a tennis court.’
‘It is a valid concern’