Crown Chaos

Matthew Steeples highlights the incompetence of the CPS after witnessing a trial for an assault on his person fail due to their ineptitude and inability to file the correct paperwork

On 23^rd April 2016, I was the victim of an unprovoked attack outside Coya, an upscale Mayfair dining spot. Yesterday, nearly a year later, an assault case against perpetrator of this offence was dismissed due to the Crown Prosecution Service having twice failed to serve the case schedule on the defendant.

That the plainly unhinged individual who targeted me, a man capable of repeatedly and forcefully smashing me in the back with a wooden handle of an umbrella but a man incapable to even turn up to court due to his “physical weakness”, was not brought to justice was frustrating enough but that this occurred due to incompetence on the part of those tasked with administering the case is what grates.

In October 2016, at Hammersmith Magistrates’ Court, at the first hearing in regard to the assault, a member of the bench pointed out that simple, yet essential paperwork had not been correctly served on the defendant by the CPS. They ordered this be corrected before a second hearing on 24^th February 2017 at the City of London Magistrates’ Court.

Yesterday, in spite of a further four months having passed, I was informed that the necessary paperwork had still not been served. On that basis, the prosecutor informed me, the case against my attacker was to be dismissed. The defendant, thus, walked scot-free and now is in a position to do something similar or worse to another member of the public. It will only be once that occurs, and inevitably it will given this individual’s previous form, that action might be taken. On that basis here, I highlight the true villains hindering justice: The hapless and hopeless CPS.