AT the present time, the Crown Prosecution Service is getting a lot of flack and it is richly deserved.

As a young detective constable in Oxford City Police, we prepared all our own court papers. If the prisoner was in custody, we had a week in which to do this and also warn the witnesses to attend and get the exhibits.

If the case was going for trial to the old Quarter Sessions or Assizes, pre-Crown Court days, we had a lot of work on, but still dealt with operational day-to-day matters and still on shift work (and there were no photo-copying machines). We then had to brief a local solicitor to handle the case at magistrate’s court and to suggest a barrister for the higher court.

Some barristers were notorious for playing dirty so we would pick them, to stop the defence using them. This meant a lot of unpaid overtime. We never heard of stress – it had not been invented. But we had a very high detection rate based on convictions.

The CPS is very long-winded and scared to prosecute in case it loses`. We worked on gut feelings and experience.

ROGER TUCKER, Kingsway Drive, Kidlington

 

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