Use of intercept evidence in court cases
06/02/2008
Mark George has spoken on Radio 4's PM programme following the announcement by Gordon Brown today that evidence gained from the bugging of suspects could be used in court cases for the first time.
In his statement to the House of Commons the Prime Minister said he agreed with the findings of a cross-party review which recommended the use of intercept evidence so long as strict conditions were met.
Mark George , interviewed on BBC Radio 4's PM programme, commented that this was an unusual situation where for once the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Director of Liberty were in agreement and that the only people who don't agree with this are the security services who are no doubt anxious that people don't find out the extent to which bugging already goes on. He added that this also undermines the Government's plans to increase pre-charge detention from 28 days to 42 days because these provisions should make it more difficult to justify not bringing people to trial at an early stage.
Mark George is a senior criminal barrister and was involved in the controversial case of R.v. Sultan Khan [1997] A.C. 558; [1996] 2 Cr. App. R. 440 in which the Crown sought to rely on evidence obtained from a covert listening device placed in a private home. He was involved in the case from the Crown Court through to the House of Lords. As a result of this case a number of legislative changes were made to put such activities on a statutory footing including the Police Act 1997 (Part III) and most importantly the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
Missed it...?
The interview was broadcast at 5.05pm on BBC Radio 4 on 6/2/08 - the show can be heard for the next 6 days via the "Listen Again" service
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/pm/
Click on the link to "Wednesday edition" under the sub-heading "Listen Again" on the right hand column of the page above. Then fast-forward 5 minutes to listen to the section of the programme featuring Mark George.
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Media coverage
> Brown approves use of wiretap evidence - The Guardian (06/02/08)
> Gordon Brown says bugging evidence "should" be used in court - The Times (06/02/08)
