Thugs walk free as cutbacks ‘cripple justice system’
Prosecutors are forced to drop cases
PROSECUTIONS for violent crime are being dropped by prosecutors stressed and fearful of making mistakes, lawyers warned yesterday.
Crimes that once led automatically to a night in the cells and an appearance next morning at a custody hearing, with strict bail conditions if an alleged offender was freed, are now being dealt with more leniently.
Unpublished crime and prosecution figures seen by The Scottish Mail on Sunday confirm the downturn.
The FDA union that represents prosecutors says a 3.5 per cent budget cut for the current year to £111 million has left its members with an ‘unrealistic task’ and constantly under pressure of time.
Despite the Scottish Government using police ‘diversion’ schemes – that steer offenders away from a criminal conviction – to give an impression that crime is down, the FDA says there has been no visible reduction in crime. One former prosecutor who left the profession recently said: ‘Ten years ago, cases were marked up properly for court by experienced staff who actually had time to read the papers.
‘Now there are piles of paperwork dumped on every junior fiscal with pressure of time to get through them quickly. Mistakes are inevitable. Most you don’t hear about, but there will be one in a big case at some point.’
Critics have condemned the Government and demanded the system be adequately funded, with violent criminals punished. Recent examples of soft justice include:
A number of cases of physical assaults in the street that have been dropped altogether or dealt with through police diversion schemes;
Cases of individuals caught carrying hundreds of pounds of drugs, which would once have earned a jail term, being dropped altogether;
Cases of drink-driving resulting in accidents, where blood or breath tests have proved guilt, being delayed for weeks and often dropped;
A man who glassed someone in a nightspot, and was told he would be summoned to court this month, remains free and faced no restrictions during the festive period.
An internal document with unpublished data from Glasgow has been passed to the MoS, showing a marked downturn in prosecutions in Scotland’s largest city, which has seen a recent reduction in the number of custody hearings.
In Glasgow between April and October 2016 there were 6,285 custody cases, but this fell 15 per cent to 5,274 in the same period last year.
Defence lawyers are particularly concerned that reports from the police to the Crown fell dramatically, from 18,900 in the same six-month period to only 14,200, a 25 per cent decrease. About half of cases reported by police to the Crown result in prosecutions, which means that Glasgow’s criminal defence solicitors faced a reduction of around 2,000 cases in just half a year.
A defence lawyer said: ‘We are seeing cases of fairly serious, unprovoked assaults on strangers in the street either being dropped or dealt with by a police warning.
‘At the same time, cases involving the Scottish Government’s pet projects all result in prosecutions. You are more likely to be prosecuted for shouting sectarian or homophobic abuse than you are for punching a stranger in the face.’
Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘If the SNP continues to under-resource the justice system, there could be serious consequences for law and order.’
A Crown Office spokesman said it had recently ‘welcomed’ an increase in its budget. He added: ‘Since 201516, the proportion of accused who are prosecuted has risen from 51 per cent to 56 per cent.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Crime is down by more than a third in the last ten years and violent crime down by almost half.’