A member of a group under police surveillance who had entered into a sexual relationship with an undercover police officer was unable to establish that her lack of knowledge as to the officer’s true identity vitiated her consent to sexual relations within the meaning of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 s.74. There was no justification […]
A prosecutor’s decision not to charge a man with the rape of a woman with learning difficulties was not irrational. The circumstances of the man’s acquittal some years earlier on charges of sexual activity with a person with a mental disorder impeding choice were such that the prosecutor had been right to conclude that the […]
The court considered the proper approach to the Victims’ Right to Review Guidance of CPS decisions and to claims made in respect of decisions to charge where the original decision was not to charge.
The Northern Ireland Public Prosecution Service had not erred in making a decision not to prosecute an alleged rape of a 14-year-old boy with moderate learning difficulties; there was a clear factual basis for the finding that there were insufficient grounds to mount a prosecution.
A decision to prosecute a 10-year-old boy for sexual offences committed against a younger boy was not irrational, nor had there been a failure by the CPS to follow its settled policy on the prosecution of young offenders.
It was not for the courts to assess the reasons behind the prosecution’s decision to charge an individual under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 s.8 rather than s.5 or s.9 and, in the circumstances, a sentence of five years’ imprisonment imposed on the individual was not manifestly excessive.
