I am a magistrate and I do not value the evidence of police as greater than that of the defendant.
With reference to the email by CK, as a magistrate I have two comments to make. 1: When I am on the bench I do not regard the evidence by the police as being greater than that of a defendant or any other witness. 2: I would urge CK’s son to defend himself under oath and present any evidence plus formulate questions to be put to the police. The police are unlikely to produce more than one officer.
Asked on 23 February 2013 by GR, JP, Royston, Herts
Answered by
Honest John
Many thanks for that. You obviously have a proper sense of justice. But I would not have run the email at all had I not been made aware of numerous instances of cooked up 'evidence' when drivers were doing no more than scratch their ears. A lot more have now come out of the woodwork. The simple answer is to make it a requirement that, unless the driver admits the offence (because he was on the phone), then the case must be proven by photographic evidence or by phone records.
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