Judge criticises 'human cost' of CPS delays as man waits three years to be cleared
A Shropshire judge has warned of the 'human cost' of delays in the court system after a university student was finally cleared of all involvement in an attack – three years after it took place.
Judge Anthony Lowe, speaking at Shrewsbury Crown Court, criticised the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) over the amount of time it is taking to review evidence in cases awaiting trial.
The court heard that accused, who had been facing a trial on a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm related to an incident in July 2020, had completed an entire university degree while waiting for his case to come to court.
Judge Lowe said the CPS had been in possession of the evidence for 18 months, but had only on Wednesday(12) decided to offer no evidence – discontinuing the case.
After the hearing a CPS spokesperson said: “We have a duty to keep our prosecutions under continuous review while considering the evidence that is available at the time.
“As part of the continuing review process, we concluded that there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction in accordance with our legal test.”
