The Defence

Highbury Corner Magistrates at Islington was one of my haunts in those heady days of Criminal Law practice, together with Camberwell Magistrates in South London, and Thames Magistrates at Bow Road in the East. I also sometimes strayed off my usual stomping grounds and headed to West London to attend juvenile court in Hammersmith, and right across London to places as far apart as Hendon, Westminster or Bromley, wherever my instructions required that I attend.

Criminal Law was always my favourite since from being a law student all those decades ago. And it was criminal defence, not prosecution. An unsuccessful attempt to join the Crown Prosecution Service as a prosecutor only reinforced this thought in my mind that I enjoyed being a criminal defence lawyer; visiting my clients when they were in police custody, or in prison - Wandsworth Prison, Brixton Prison, Wormwood Scrubs, Pentonville - getting to know them; seeking the most favourable outcomes for them, even when I knew they were guilty as hell. I guess there was a naughty side of me that took delight in this - siding with the bad guys, well, sort of.

Later when I moved on to more desk-bound roles, although equally intense and stressful - but better remunerated, the work was not quite as exciting, as, for example, springing my client out of jail who had been in custody for months and denied bail repeatedly; or successfully arguing for a suspended sentence for my client, even though I knew they deserved to be sent to prison. My overseas training was advantageous, because it came with the advocacy skills of a barrister that solicitors who are trained solely in England and Wales do not normally possess. I was involved in several Crown Court matters as well, the court where the more serious cases are tried, and where I sat behind barristers whom I had instructed. 

Given the limited audience rights of a solicitor in England, namely, audience rights limited to the lower courts, tribunals, panels, and so on, it is those lower court cases, especially some particularly fierce cross-examinations of prosecution witnesses that have remained in my thoughts for longer, since the advocacy itself was always my stronger side. 

My Fifteen Minutes Of Fame

For a while I was undecided on whether to title this post 'Fifteen Minutes to Save the World', a play on Madonna's song '4 Minutes'. I settled for the one above because this more accurately describes what happened last evening when I was invited by a Dublin radio station, Dublin City FM 103.2, to participate in a 'lively discussion' on the crisis in the Horn of Africa, broadcast live. My role, I think, was to bring to the discussion arguments from the perspective of the angry and frustrated African since I have previously strongly made the assertion that African governments and their peoples have repeatedly demonstrated an almost shameful lack of interest in and concern for the very serious human tragedy that is the drought and famine in Somalia and other countries in the Horn of Africa.

I received the invitation only a few hours before the scheduled live broadcast and hence had insufficient time to notify everyone, although I did put out the word on Twitter and Facebook. The last time I was on a radio show was on the BBC World Service and as far as I am aware, nobody who knows me tuned in then. When BBC Radio 5 invited me subsequently to join in a discussion on the then impending Nigerian National Assembly Election, I dis-invited myself for reasons I had no control over. So yesterday it was important to me that somebody listened and that they should give me some reaction afterwards.

And fortunately just five minutes before the show began my niece who lives in Lagos, Nigeria said "Hi Uncle" on Facebook. After hurriedly explaining to her that I was on the cusp of joining in a live radio show, I sent her the web link to the radio station's website, since the show was to be broadcast online as well. And so, apart from the several thousand Dubliners who were tuned in and would have heard my 'passionate' and 'heartfelt' remarks, a member of my family too listened in.

And the reaction she gave when we chatted afterwards was good too. I mean my niece is no pushover, (she holds a Masters Degree in International Business from a top UK university and holds down a senior position in the banking world), so her reaction really did matter to me. I was concerned because I know of my tendency to be ardent and impassioned, (which even years of advocacy before the courts has done little to improve), especially when the subject-matter is one about which I feel strongly, as yesterday's was. I feared that I would stall and stammer, as occurred while on the BBC World Service, when uncharacteristically I stammered and was tongue-tied, and ran out of words altogether, lol.

But no, it was great to have the opportunity to express my views concerning this very important issue, the importance of which going by the evidence, few Africans seem to be aware of, or to be interested in. Many are nonchalant - the African Union has coughed up a measly $300,000 in relief aid, whereas, the British public alone have so far put together donations amounting to in excess of £44 million. My niece later commented that there was little talk in appreciation or awareness in Nigeria of the seriousness of the crisis; in a situation where even the governments of Africa believe that in times of crisis such as this, relief ought always to come from elsewhere other than Africa.

"Freedom without my lover is useless and meaningless"

Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza are taken into custody after celebrating their engagement, The Guardian

Renowned rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has told the Guardian newspaper that he has received a message of defiance from Tiwonge Chimbalanga, one half of the Malawian same-sex couple who are currently facing criminal charges of 'unnatural practices between males' and 'gross indecency'. In the message, Chimbalanga stated "I love Steven too much. If people of the world cannot give me the chance and freedom to continue living with him as my lover, then I am better off to die here in prison. Freedom without him is useless and meaningless."

Tatchell who has maintained contact with the couple since they have been in prison also quoted Steven Monjeza (the other half of the couple) as saying, "We have come a long way and even if our family relatives are not happy, I will never stop loving Tiwonge." The couple who have been refused bail, have been remanded in prison custody since last December. The verdict of the court in the trial of this heroic couple is due next week. It has been said that currently Steven looks "thin and weak", with "jaundiced eyes".

Residents of the Machinjiri township on the outskirts of Blantyre where the couple have their home have responded angrily, saying that they will not allow the couple to return home if they are set free.

"They have given this township a bad name", said Maikolo Phiri, a local vendor.

Zione Monjeza, an aunt of Steven said, "We as a family have been terribly embarrassed to be associated with this gay thing. It's a curse and a big shame. We will chase them away if they are freed."

Nchiteni Monjeza, Steven's uncle, said: "I won't drop a tear if they are jailed. They deserve it."

For me the couple are social revolutionaries who deserve the support of all right-thinking people. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in Africa where more than half of the population live below the poverty line. Tobacco is the country's main export and the use of child labour is rampant. This worrying BBC World Service report elaborates on the problem of families who due to poverty are forced to send their children to work in the tobacco fields, thereby denying the children their childhood, and their right to education. There is much talk about unscrupulous and uncaring large international tobacco companies, but my mind tells me that the government of Malawi are more directly responsible for the welfare of the child-citizens of the country than any international company is. The Malawian government, as with many other governments in Africa, continues to fail their people. Employers of child labour are not pursued and prosecuted, even though under Malawian law the employment of children is illegal.

While child labour can be defined as any work, which by its nature or employment conditions is detrimental to a child's physical, mental, moral, social or emotional development, the "Worst Forms of Child Labour" refers to the types of work for children described in Article 3 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 182. Article 3 of the Convention, among other things, emphasises any work, which is "likely" to harm a child's health, safety or morals, such as, in this case the work carried out in the tobacco and tea estates of Malawi.

For statistics on child labour in Malawi you may take a look at [download] this very detailed ILO report. For the year 2000 the ILO projected 445,000 economically active children between the ages of 10 and 14 working as child labourers, representing 31.5% of this age group, 216,000 girls and 229,000 boys. The report also observed that being tender physically, children are susceptible to various work-related injuries and illnesses to a greater degree than adults doing the same kind of work, and that a high percentage of the children were physically injured or fell ill while working.

Interestingly just last evening I saw a report on this same subject on Channel 4's Unreported World. (Please click on the link and see the Unreported World report. It will be available online only for about one month from the date of this blog post). Unlike the reporter however, who apparently sought to blame the big tobacco companies, I put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Malawian government for failing to protect the children of the country. 

And yet it is this same government that will enthusiastically pursue and persecute harmless homosexual men. I eagerly await the verdict next Tuesday and the fallout thereafter if the couple are jailed.

The Malawi Law Society (MLS), the professional body of the country's 200 lawyers, has spoken out in favour of the couple, saying that they are "not a threat to the society" and should be freed. This is an about-turn from a few months ago when Malawian lawyers proclaimed that the couple broke the law and deserve to face justice. It is a clear example of the effectiveness of the efforts of rights campaigners worldwide, who since this saga began in December 2009, have ceaselessly stressed the injustice that is inherent in the continued detention of the couple and how unlikely it is that they will get a fair trial in the face of such massively hostile public opinion.

My Sleepwalker

The phone on my desk rang. It was Silla from reception asking if I was available to see a client who was very upset and wanted to see someone right away. I asked what the problem was and Silla said the woman didn't speak much English, but that she had indicated that her son was in some kind of trouble with the police. From the tone of Silla's voice, I knew she really wished that I should see the woman. I respected Silla, for her many years of experience, and for that Mauritian flair with which she expertly and confidently executed her duties at the front desk. So I deferred to her judgement, set aside what I was working on and asked that the woman be shown in. 

The door opened and a 30-something year old Somali woman entered my room carrying a child in her arms, a toddler. Following behind her was a lean bespectacled teenager. The resemblance was obvious to see, I could tell immediately that these two were mother and son. Mrs G's frustration was clear, so I did the best I could to get them to relax. I then got down to the business of finding out what I could do for them. Mrs G spoke little English, but her son A, who was 18 and attended school, acted as our interpreter.

The story was that sometime the previous week, policemen had visited their home and invited A, the son, to the police station. After the visit to the police station on that date, the son had been released on police bail and was requested to attend the police station again today. Mrs G had accompanied her son to the police appointment this morning, and, (thrusting the charge sheet at me), said her son had now been charged with the offence of breaking and entry.

Their neighbour next door, a female Polish immigrant, had made a complaint to the Police that she had been awoken from sleep in the middle of the previous night. On waking she realised that what had roused her were sounds and movements in her bedroom. She lived alone in her flat and normally left her bedroom window open at night during the summer months. She was alarmed, fearing that there might be an intruder in her bedroom so she switched on the bedside lamp. To her utter dismay she found a black man standing before her, inside her bedroom. She screamed, and the black man seeing that she had awakened, suddenly turned around, rushed to the open window, climbed out, and vanished into the darkness on to the roof of the kitchen extension of her building. She called the Police immediately and some officers were sent over to make sure this woman was alright. 

Seeing that she was okay the officers requested that the woman attend the police station in the morning to make a statement. In making this statement in writing at the police station, the woman suggested that the black man in her bedroom bore a striking resemblance to the young son of the Somali family that lived next door to her. (I know all of these facts because I later got to read the statement that this woman gave to the police. During their first visit to my office, Mrs G and her son had only told their side of the story).

Now what Mrs G said to me during that first visit was that throughout his childhood A had suffered from somnambulism. He had been a serial sleepwalker, but that as he reached adolescence the incidence of sleepwalking had reduced significantly. The family had been living in London since her son was about six years old, and as a child he had received medical treatment for the condition. She was afraid that his sleepwalking might have resumed, although apart from this present incident, there were no recent incidents that she knew of. She thought her son could have been sleepwalking when he climbed out of their upstairs bathroom window in the middle of the night, and made his way on to the roof of their patio extension. He must have crossed over to the roof of the neighbour's kitchen extension, crawled across that roof to the neighbour's upstairs bedroom window, which was open, and climbed into the neighbour's bedroom.

The son himself had no recollection of the incident. He told police that he did not remember climbing out of the bathroom window of their house. Mrs G said her son's bedroom was down the corridor from hers, and that she had heard nothing. But his bedroom was directly next to the bathroom, and going by the allegation made by the neighbour, she feared that her son might have done that which he was now accused of doing. I accepted the case because I thought this would be interesting. My client (A, the son) was due in court the next Monday morning.

Early Monday morning I arrived at the Camberwell Magistrates Court and obtained the Advance Information documentation from the Crown prosecutor. He (or she) is obliged to make these available to me. In this bundle of documents is contained the victim's statement, and the statements and reports of the police officers who had attended the scene and conducted the investigation. I also noted from the papers that the victim had subsequently positively identified my client as the "black man" she saw in her bedroom.

On the basis of the information contained in the Advance Information bundle I advised my client to plead "Not Guilty", and this is what he did when the charge was read out to him in the crowded courtroom. 

Monday morning in any magistrates court is busy because of the overnight cases from the previous weekend. Detained cases are given priority. These are mostly remorseful young men who let alcohol get the better of them during the Friday and the Saturday night just gone. On this day there was a wife beater too. I said the courtroom was crowded, but half of the public gallery was taken up by what seemed like the entire adult Somali population of the borough where my client resides. 

I genuinely doubted that the prosecution would be able to prove (to the standard of proof that is required) that my client "broke into and entered" the victim's "dwelling place, with the intention of committing an offence", the legal definition of the crime of 'breaking and entry', which is what my client was now charged with. I realised that the mental element, (the intent), was a crucial element of this offence and that the prosecution would have great difficulty in proving that my client indeed climbed into his neighbour's bedroom, if at all, with the intention of doing something unlawful.

It was a 'Not Guilty' plea then, so the matter was to be adjourned and a date set for trial. At this point I interjected, saying that my client would be relying on medical evidence in his defence. For this reason, a reasonable period of time was required to obtain the medical report. I requested an adjournment for four weeks, and my request was granted. The next date would be for a case management conference, a date for the court to assess the preparedness of the parties for trial.

Leaving court with me and surrounded by several loudly chattering Somali men and women, Mrs G was smiling, looking happier than I had ever seen her before then. I shook many appreciative hands, and I wondered why, since this was only the beginning of this case.

"Now to see to that medical report", I thought to myself, as I left them and headed back to the office.. (To be continued).

My day in court

Do you have a boss? How do you feel about him or her? Mine is absolutely wonderful! I joined his firm many years ago as a junior. I was newly qualified then and was keen to prove to my employer that taking me on was the best possible decision he could have made. I suppose in working so hard to establish myself in the firm, I made a good impression on him, because, although I left him after about four years to join another firm as a partner, he welcomed me back with open arms when I returned to his firm after that other firm was closed down, having run into difficulties with our professional regulatory body. The regulation authority suspended the practising certificates of all of us who were at that other firm, but just months later I was back in practice. Indeed, I alone am still practising of all those that were at that firm, because my current boss stood by me and assured the regulation authority that he would provide me with the supervision and support that the regulatory authority had imposed as a condition for my returning to practice.

The law is that when a firm is closed down, as my former firm was, the partners at the firm are liable for the costs incurred by the regulation authority in effecting that firm's intervention and closure. A series of invoices were sent out to me and the other partners, amounting to a sum in the region of £50K, said to be the costs for the intervention and closure. Now, because I'm the only one of the former partners remaining in practice, (the others have ignored all correspondence from the regulation authority), I am having to face the brunt of this, (carrying the can, so to speak), whereas the actuality is that none of the issues that gave rise to the intervention in the first place can be attributed to myself personally. I just happened to have entered into partnership with the wrong bunch of people and got myself into the mess that I find myself in. Through all of this, my boss has quietly supported and encouraged me. He assures me that he is confident that I have no personal involvement in the matters that led to the closure of that firm.

Today was the hearing in court of the court case that the regulation authority has instituted against myself and my former partners, to recover its costs arising from the intervention/closure. The hearing was in the afternoon, so I thought I'd attend the office in the morning and deal with some pressing matters before heading to court later. On arrival at the office this morning, I was informed by his secretary that my boss had left the office ten minutes earlier, on his way to court, to be with me at the hearing. This surprised me. I had neglected to explain that the hearing would be in the afternoon, simply because I had not expected that he would want to attend. So I quickly rang him on his mobile phone, told him the hearing was in fact at 2pm and he turned around and returned to the office. Hours later, after quite a busy morning, I peeped into his room to say that I was leaving for my hearing. To my surprise, my boss insisted on attending the hearing with me, which meant that he had to drop everything he was doing, (and there was a lot on his plate too..).

He stayed with me throughout the hearing, and waited with me for hours while the Judge considered the matter. Of all the defendants I was the only one present in court, and the case did not go very well for me. To put it in a nutshell, I've learned my lesson about being very careful when entering into a partnership with people you hardly know. And it's a lesson that I've learned the hard way too.. But I've also learned that there are in fact people, like my boss, who are genuinely kind and dependable. His presence at the hearing and his words to me afterwards helped to lighten the burden on my mind. I have always respected him, but after today, my respect for him has grown and taken a new dimension. He is truly an extraordinarily wonderful man and I am blessed to have him as my boss.

Got him out at last

I made it a point when I started blogging that I would never write about my work, not only because I am aware of my duty of confidentiality, but because I think work should remain where it belongs, at the office. Blogging for me is a hobby, something I've come to enjoy doing. But today something happened at work and I feel the need to share it here. 

My client had been in custody for well over a month. He has been refused bail twice in the last two weeks. First it was because the sureties had failed to attend court with their up-to-date financial details, the second because the name of one of the sureties appeared on the Police National Computer for some misdemeanor going back 15 years. The judge was not satisfied therefore that this was a suitable surety and in the meantime my client continued to be detained, much to my chagrin.

Today I was determined not to walk out of that courtroom with my client still behind bars. Conversely, it appeared that the judge was equally determined that bail was not to be granted and that my client would be spending this holiday weekend in jail. It was a battle of wills, the judge's against mine, and to cut a long story short I won in the end, because with the arguments that were put forward the judge's hands were tied. He had no choice but to grant bail, albeit grudgingly. The fact that the bail was granted reluctantly does not appear on the bail sheet. Bail is bail, reluctantly granted or not. My client is out, and that is what matters. And I feel just great.