Behind the tape
Expert advice to get the details right in your crime fiction from serving police officer Lisa Cutts
Q
If someone takes their own life (sadly) and they leave a letter for a partner/spouse, do the police read it and class it as ‘evidence’?
Mike Lynch via email
A
Yes, you’re correct; the police would read and seize the letter. If there are no suspicious circumstances, the family would have the deceased person’s possessions returned to them at a later date, including the letter.
A police officer (sometimes the detective sergeant who attended the suicide, although this may vary) writes a report for the Coroner giving the details about the last known movements of the deceased and how the person died. The family would have access to the report, and the contents of the letter would be referenced both in the report and presented at the inquest.
Whether a murder or suicide, the letter would still be treated in the same way as evidence – preserved for DNA and fingerprints, placed in an evidence bag and logged as an exhibit.
Q
What would the likely charges be against a seventeen-year-old boy who ‘borrows’ his friend’s dad’s car without permission in order to impress a girl, then has an accident in which the girl is seriously injured? Of previous good character, the boy has passed his test and planned to replace the car in his friend’s garage after a quick spin. During the drive, however, a disagreement with the girl leads to him losing control of the vehicle.
Teresa Bassett via email
A
He is likely to be arrested for several offences, although not necessarily charged with them all. In this scenario, he might be charged with two offences:
1. Section 1A of the Road Traffic Act 1988 causing injury by dangerous driving.
2. If he’s taken the car without the owner’s knowledge and agreement, he has committed an offence of taking without consent (TWOC) which comes within the Theft Act 1968. Further to this, as the passenger has been injured due to his driving, there’s a chance he would be charged with aggravated TWOC as well as causing injury by dangerous driving.
Technically, he’s committed burglary by entering the garage and taking the car, but it’s extremely unlikely he would be charged with that too, so I’d leave the charges at the two driving/vehicle ones. Lisa Cutts is a crime fiction author and retired detective sergeant, having spent most of her career within the Serious Crime Department. She has returned to work as an Investigating Officer on historic crimes. Her novels are published by Myriad and Simon and Schuster.