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Just been chatting to a friend with respect to Maurice. He was very interested by the documents Sabine has posted and suggests that in principle they are a "nice" idea they fail to reflect current procedures in the Criminal Courts.

He told me to have a look at Wiki - I did and was surprised to read:

"In criminal law demurrer is obsolete, although not formally abolished. It has been superseded by the more modern motion to quash, usually a verbal application to the judge to rule the indictment null and void and to stop the case (demurrer was pleaded in writing)".

He suggested that Maurice would be wise to get proper advice from someone qualified and practicing, rather than advice from an "anonymous advocate friend" of Sabine Mckneil, with unspecified qualifications or experience....

He pointed out (in the time space of a few minutes) a number of legal errors in the documents and suggested that they might hinder rather than help Maurice.

He went on to suggest that Maurice will have access to a copy of "Insider Times" in the prison and that contains numerous law firms who could and would help Maurice - all he has to do is ring them in the first instance.

He also suggested this organisation as being potentially helpful to Maurice and said they have had numerous very successful outcomes.

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Insidejustice

Iinsidejustice was launched in July 2010 to investigate alleged miscarriages of justice.

We assist prisoners who are protesting their innocence by reinvestigating their cases. We can assess trial evidence, revisit witnesses, identify and commission new forensic work and trawl through unused material in order to find that elusive piece of evidence to get the case back to the Court of Appeal.

We work with existing solicitors and legal representatives and encourage collaboration with external organisations in the support of an individual’s pursuit of justice.

We have extensive contacts within the media and work to secure publicity for deserving cases.  In 2010 we collaborated with the BBC to make a 30 minute TV documentary about a young man called Colin Norris who we believe is innocent and is serving 30 years for murders he did not commit.

Evidence revealed in our programme is currently being assessed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

insidejustice is led by Louise Shorter who for 10 years was a producer/director of the BBC’s long-running miscarriage of justice series Rough Justice.  Our core strength comes from our Advisory Panel of experts who come from a rich range of disciplines. The panel considers select cases put before them with a view to identifying new work and investigative strands.  We have a budget to commission new forensic work on individual cases and strive to support and facilitate academic research on key issues affecting the criminal justice system.

The unit is a division of insidetime and was established with charitable funding from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, the Michael Newsum Charitable Trust and insidetime.

If you would like your case to be considered by this Unit, please write to

insidejustice, Miscarriage of Justice Unit, PO Box 251, Hedge End, Hampshire, SO30 4XJ

and ask for an application form to be sent. When returning the form try to send a copy of the Trial Judge's Summing Up if you have it, or any other official court record of the case against you so that we can see what evidence needs to be challenged.

It is interesting that Cat Lady doesn't state what the legal errors are.  So far as Demurrer is concerned, if you look at the statements carefully, you will see that it also refers to motion to quash, and there is no reason why that cannot be in writing.  

Regarding Demurrer as a legal remedy, simply because it may have fallen into disuse, doesn't mean it has been abolished.

We therefore ask, can you do better and what is it that you have actually done to assist Maurice.

Maurice doesn't wish to instruct lawyers so us McKenzie advisers are doing our best to help him.

Maurice doesn't trust lawyers, so there's nothing that can be done about that is there.

Any more bright ideas?

Relating to the demurrer, as there is an alternative motion to quash, then even if it is archaic, that will pose no problems.  

Maurice has stated that he doesn't want legal representation, and he is free to either use the notices or not as the case may be.  So far he has given his consent.,  If you want to advise him to ignore them, you are free to do so.

Regarding the one for the Gareth Evans appeal, you are of course right to note that the defences are somewhat narrower under section 24A of PACE than the one dealing with the Rogan case.

You are correct to point out that as Gareth Evans was entering a diffeerent court some time after the alleged offences that Maurrice has accused him of, then he wasn't in the act of committing an offence, whether Indictable or not.

However, even here, Maurice has a defence to the assault if he can show that he had reasonable grounds for beliving that Gareth Evans had committed an offence at his previuos trial at Cardiff Crown Court, not just that an offence had actually been committed,

I have drawn all of this to Maurice's attention, as at the Rogen case, none of this was raised, and Maurice didn't give evidence, so the issue of whether or not he had reasobnable grounds for his beliefs was never raised by him.

Once an assault was committed by Maurice, the burden rests on him to show that he was making a lawful arrest, if he can satisfy the various tests set out in section 24A of PACE and not any common law powers, as he tried to argue in the Rogan case.

If he fails in that, then as you rightly point out, he is guilty of the assaults.  Also, even if he is able to satisfy on a balance of probabilities, the reasonable grounds tests, he also has to satisfy the court that in making the arrest and therefore perpetrating the assault, he was acting reasonably under the section, such as preventing the suspect from fleeing etc.

One might say Maurice has a high hurdle, and unfortunately if he declines to give evidence on any of these appeals, the appeals will be dismissed.

All further observations on these legal matters and any others raised in the notices are welcome.

All I have attempted to do is to try to put before the court some seblence of legal defences for Maurice.

Maurice is free to hire legal representation with counsel if he wishes.  So far he has declined.