Case 1:
A man under the influence of alcohol during his trial appeared in court on Thursday 10th, October for an assault charge. An alcoholic assessment was required on the day as Mr. Khan was being very disruptive throughout the case, a court heard.
The victim of the assault has asked for a restraining order to stay 50 meters away from the defendant as his attack has caused a serious level of distress to the person involved. Coventry Magistrates Court heard that Mr. Khan’s crime was caught on CCTV leaving the victim in a vulnerable state.
Mr. Khan has had numerous run-ins with the law as his solicitor believes he does these crimes to pay for his long-standing drug addiction. The defendant was last seen in court on the 16th of April 2024 when he went to crown court for a burglary case and even served time for this. Mr. Khan asked to approach the bench multiple times where he stated “I lied so I can get bail”
The trial went to an interval where they had a meeting with the defendant, but he was not willing to work with the prohibition team. Mr. Khan denied the charges as he wanted to vacate his guilty plea to not guilty. The judge instructed that the case would be adjourned for a new trial on Wednesday 29th November 2024.
Case 2:
Mr. Bird has been arrested on a harassment charge where he sent numerous repeated emails to his ex-girlfriend between December 2022 and August 2023, a court heard.
A jury heard multiple of these emails where Mr. Bird constantly tried to express his love to his ex-girlfriend and witness Ms. Palacios as he tried to reconcile their relationship.
In one of these emails, Mr. Bird declared, “I will be in the oak from 6 pm will you be coming; I don’t want to get in trouble so will stay away”. After previous emails, Ms. Palacios met him in the pub as he threatened to go to her home otherwise. She applied for a restraining order in 2022 as she felt scared and distressed towards the defendant but that didn’t stop him from trying.
They haven’t spoken since April 2022, when Mr. Bird served an eight and a half months sentence in prison for a separate charge. During this time, Mr. Bird wrote letters to people asking for forgiveness. One of those letters was for Ms. Palacios and she sent one back to the defendant’s mother’s home address. “I felt uneasy because he is manipulative. I said no to him no means no”.
After Ms. Palacios received a birthday message on the 6th of December 2022, she applied for a non- magistrate’s order against Mr. Bird, where he wasn’t aware of the contents as “it wasn’t issued to me”. The defendant was adamant that he didn’t receive the order because he was serving a prison sentence, so the judge dismissed it.
The verdict on the case was that Mr. Bird was found not guilty as the court believed he didn’t cross the boundaries. An application for a restraining order of three years has been suggested where he shouldn’t have contact until further notice.
Case 3: Crown Court Case
A couple are on trial for multiple charges, including child neglect and murdering of their three-year-old son Abiyah Yasharahyalah, who was found buried in their back garden in Birmingham in December 2022, a court heard.
One of the trials took place on Thursday, 24th October 2024, in Coventry Crown Court, where witness Dr. Sally Andrews, a forensic odontologist who focuses on the identification and analysis of human teeth in a legal context. She gave evidence about the child having bad dental hygiene problems due to his parents not providing enough loving support to their young son.
The bone surrounding the teeth was unusual because the dental condition was very poor with extensive tooth decay. The jury heard that Abiyah Yasharahyalah’s dental hygiene was good at birth, but the timing of development stopped between eighteen and twenty-four months. Dr. Andrews went on to say “The child’s dental care was thinner than an eggshell”
The first initial contact Tai and Naiyahmi Yasharahyalah had with the police was shown in court using capture footage on a body cam in December 2021. The first clip shows the front door is painted black with a sign saying, “If there is any violation to any member of the Yasharahyalah family, you will be met with the necessary force”
A second clip showed Mr. Yasharahyalah getting arrested after he didn’t engage with the officer as he constantly spoke over him. The police visited their residences to check on the women’s and child’s safety, but they were swiftly met with a response from Mr. Yasharahyalah saying, “My child isn’t of your concern, this is my family, is this your son?”
Once the father was arrested, the police did a thorough search of the property, which they found to be unsuitable for a child to live in as there was nothing in the fridge except coconuts. As a result of this, the three-year-old would have been left looking malnourished from the state of their family home. The case is still ongoing as there will be further evidence taking place the next day on Friday, 25th October 2024, where anthropologists will investigate the reasons why the couple might have abused their child, the court heard
600 Word Reflective Essay:
During one of our visits to the Coventry magistrate’s court, one legal issue I came across was the fact that the defendant in case one was not happy with this solicitor. The defendant expressed to the bench that he only pleaded guilty so he could get bail, which might be seen as defamation in the sense of him going against his solicitor as the case had to be adjourned until a later date in the year. Section 2 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 says: “It is a contempt to publish material which creates a substantial risk of serious prejudice or impediment to ‘active’ legal proceedings”. (Hanna.M,2020) This suggests that journalists might not be able to publish their material until there is an actual verdict because otherwise, it might cause harm to an ongoing case as it might not give a defendant a fair trial. When Magistrates can jail a defendant for up to six months for a single offense and for up to 12 months for more than one offence if they decide that jail terms should run consecutively, depending on penalties specified for an offence so it will be interesting to see how long this person will get as he is facing an assault charge.
The second court case was about harassment, where one legal restriction I had to think about was whether conduct experienced by the victim in its entirety amounts to stalking or harassment. Stalking is like harassment, but it’s more aggressive, so I think selecting the right charges would have to be applied to the defendant because he sent numerous messages to the victim expressing his desire to rekindle their relationship but never acted in the way of stalking. (CPS, 2018) One ethical issue you would have to think about is the prosecutor’s role in supporting the victim because, during the court case, they had to have a barrier up in front of the victim while she was giving evidence, so the woman didn’t see the defendant who was sitting in the courtroom at the same time. I think having a barrier up between the defendant and the victim is just for a precaution so the person giving evidence doesn’t feel intimated in any way.
People aggrieved by what has been published about them or by how journalists have treated them may want a watchdog body to intervene in or adjudicate on their complaint. This watchdog is the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), which uses the Editors’ Code of Practice to adjudicate complaints. One legal issue we faced was during one trip to the crown court, where we couldn’t use certain information from the case for our assignment after there were too many legal restrictions around the people involved in the case. Two parents were up for a child neglect charge where you’re not allowed to name somebody who is under 18, and the case becomes tricker to report one as one of the parents had other children, so the court didn’t want their names out in public either. (NLS,2023) Another ethical issue you would have to think about would be the physical signs of poor appearance and hygiene that are common among neglected children. One of the witnesses gave evidence about the child’s bad dental problems, which was one sign of child neglect as the parents must not have been helping brush his teeth. This was one of many reasons why the couple was charged because it is an interesting case to see what sentence they will receive, and all of this information is reflected in my court report.
References:
Hanna. M & Harrison.S, (26 Jun. 2020), McNae’s essential law for journalists, Available at: https://bibliu.com/app/?bibliuMagicToken=He47PG4lf2NS3wrhj44HdbGIJCW3V584#/view/books/B1BBPOGIPFZ76/epub/OEBPS/008_FM_contents.html#page_xiv
CPS, (23 May 2018), Stalking or harassment, Available at:https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/stalking-or-harassment
Admin.Nls, (3 April 2023), What Do Social Services Consider as Neglect of a Child?, Available at: https://nationallegalservice.co.uk/what-do-social-services-consider-as-neglect-of-a-child/#:~:text=The%20four%20signs%20of%20neglect&text=Neglected%20children%20may%20also%20show,the%20child%20may%20be%20neglected.
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