3rd Action Para 2. Vale of Glamorgan Show Convictions under threat for 'strike out'
The trial judge, His Honour Judge Seys Llewelyn QC, expressed interest in reading the Crown Prosecutor, Jackie Seal's account, on transcript, of how Maurice was apparantly, deliberately denied the right to abide by a simple 'bind over' following an argument whilst he was leaving an agricultural show with his young son.
Enclosed, see here, are a sequence of docs summarising an incident when Maurice was arrested for 'Breach of the Peace' [BOP], for refusing to leave, trying to make a complaint of assaults, originating following an incident, surrounded by the general public, with a vicious slap across the face by recently retired Barry police inspector, Howard Davies. This led to a string of judicial procedures typical of so many others, experienced in South Wales, that were designed purely to have Maurice Kirk struck off the veterinary register reliant on false evidence.
The incident led to Maurice's arrest and detention but in court, next day, the simple 'bind over to keep the peace' could not be put to him, as the policeman had drafted three versions, all wrong. So the Crown prosecutor and clerk decided to say nothing in court as to why Maurice was there.
What followed was that the Crown decided to take the case out of the geographical area, Bridgend and not serve fresh summonses, 'common assault', 'public order' and 'resisting arrest', until five months later and until Maurice was actually in court with the prosecution ready to start with their witnesses. The case was heard immediately, so he could not obtain any of his witnesses.
It did not end there, far from it. The three versions expanded to four and then five, as Maurice made 'Abuse of Process' applications and appeals in the Cardiff Crown Courts and Royal Courts of Justice with each barrister, in turn, lying through their back teeth until the one, actually instructed, for the substantive appeal. in Cardiff he admitted, years later, that had he not been so seriously misled [by CPS Jackie Seal, CPS Dennis Davies, clerks of the courts and, obviously, his preceeding barristers, including Andrew Jones] he would never of opposed the appeal. He had not been informed that the police had originally decided it was only a BOP incident, but CPS solicitors cooked up fresh charges, not the reason why Maurice was arrested, withholding favourable evidence for the defence, by way of eye witnesses.
A Breach of the Peace should have been dealt with there and then and cannot be adjourned. Months later, January 99, part way through the trial, the clerk in Bridgend court suggested quietly to the CPS, Dennis Davies, the BOP allegation should be removed from the list of four, before the court, as Maurice would refuse to be bound over. But Maurice was never ever informed or given the opportunity. For had he, the complaint, under common law, would have been spent after 12 months meaning the RCVS could not have used the incident in their particular version of events.
The barrister wrote, in January 2002, to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, stating that had he known about the original Breach of the Peace decision and that it was only being withdrawn due to police incompetence [with more than a little help from the CPS] he would never have challenged Maurice's appeal against, what the CPS called, 'substituted' charges, which, of course, they definitely were not.
CPS costs exceeded £11,000 and no enquiry could be mounted, by the appropriate authority, for an investigation into what this affair had exposed.