DPP hosts seminar for Magistrates, Prosecutors

Mar 04, 2014 News

In response to issues which continue to plague court proceedings, the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions recently hosted a workshop for Magistrates, State Prosecutors and Police Prosecutors attached to the Chambers, to address an important concern.
According to a release issued to the press, the discussion at the workshop focused on the issue of “Admissibility of Caution Statements,” oral and written, in cases of Summary Trials, Preliminary lnquiries (Pls) and Paper Committals.

Director of Public Prosecutions Shalimar Ali-Hack

It is noted by those who follow the legal system, that Caution Statements have always been a point of contention between Prosecutors and Lawyers when cases are called before the courts.
Determining the admissibility of the statements has often resulted in Voir Dire (trial within a trial) which stalls the actual trial. The result of these ‘trials’ is that sometimes the caution statements are thrown out of court and not accepted as evidence in the matter.
At the workshop which was held at the Guyana Police Force (GPF) Officers’ Training Centre (OTC), Eve Leary, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Mrs. Shalimar Ali-Hack gave the opening remarks to the participants.
She explained that the need for the workshop resulted from the fact that when police files are sent to the Chambers for legal advice she is sometimes faced with incomplete police investigations in relation to the issues arising in summary trials, Pls and paper committals in relation to the taking of caution statements.
“Files have been causing me some problems to indict and so I have to send them back for further investigations and it is holding up the cases from being heard expeditiously,” the DPP explained.
According to the statement, in some instances the necessary evidence is absent from the Preliminary Inquiry and the DPP has to direct the Magistrate to reopen the preliminary inquiry for the necessary evidence to be taken.
The objective of the discussion will ensure that when these matters are heard in the court both the police prosecutors and the magistrates will have the same understanding of these legal issues resulting in Preliminary inquiries being conducted in a timely manner and avoid any delays in the hearing of the Pls.
The seminar also saw addresses from Chief Justice lan Chang and Madam Justice Roxanne George.

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