In the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division), Trinity Criminal and Regulatory barrister, David Comb has successfully overturned a conviction for two offences of child abduction.
In the case of R v Pringle [2019] EWCA Crim 1722, the conviction was held to be unsafe where there was no defendant intermediary, no ground rules hearing, no special measures were adopted and the cross examination by prosecution counsel concentrated at length on matters of peripheral relevance and confused the defendant. In addition, the permissibility of adducing evidence of a defendant’s communication difficulties was considered by the court.
The Court of Appeal also provided valuable guidance on the definition of child abduction and the status and relevance in criminal proceedings of a Child Abduction Warning Notice.