Secret Trials

Christopher Booker has been writing for years now on the iniquities associated with Family Court proceedings taking place in secret. Holding trials in secret has led to the inevitable - huge miscarriages of justice. Whatever was wrong with the previous system where trials were held in public but to protect the children their names were substituted by letters? Being held in public the newspapers were still able to report them but yet the participants would not be able to be identified. It is absolutely essential that we go back to this system or something like it. It is also absolutely essential that Ken Clarke is not allowed to introduce any more secret trials. What was he thinking of trying to introduce secret trials earlier this year for issues involving national security? It has always been possible during a trial for certain parts of it to be held 'in camera' in order to hide certain matters from the public where the judge is persuaded that national security will be threatened otherwise. This attack on the ancient principle of justice being done and being seen to be done is one of many in recent years and is all the more surprising since we supposedly live in an age of transparency. Not perhaps so surprising since the cry 'transparency' has been adopted by politicians of all parties and we all know when that happens that the hypocrites have merely climbed onto the latest fashionable band wagon. Nonetheless I was shocked to read Archbishop Cranmer's blog this morning that one Roger Hayes had been arrested at 9.30am the other day, tried, convicted and sent to prison by 6.30pm the same day. You can see Cranmer's blog here. There are two updates on the blog which rather take the wind out of the good Archbishop's sails and thereby my own. Roger Hayes was arrested on a bench warrant issued by a judge for failing to appear at a criminal trial for non payment of his local council tax. The trial at which Hayes was convicted will have been held in open court contrary to what Cranmer feared. Judges have always had the power to issue warrants for the arrest of those accused of a crime but who fail to appear before them on the date set for trial. This is essential in any system. Think what those accused of crimes could get away with otherwise. Query whether the non payment of council tax should be able to lead to criminal charges but that is a different question.