Annual Report 2012-2013 page 8

In the 2012–2013 year, some 87 accused who were committed for trial changed their plea to guilty before the trial. In all of those 87 matters, the prosecution had done work – sometimes a considerable amount of work – in preparing the case for trial. Of the 87 matters, 26 accused pleaded guilty on the trial date itself, 15 within a week before the trial date and another 3 within 2 weeks before the trial date. This means that a total of 44 people, (or just over 50%) pleaded within 2 weeks of the scheduled date for trial, in all cases well into the third stage of preparation as set out above.

In 54 of the 87 cases, subpoenas had already been issued by the Crown – in itself a resource intensive and expensive exercise. In 65 cases a trial date had already been set, which indicates involvement of the court.

Of course, by the time pleas of guilty are entered in such cases, most of the work of the prosecution has already been done. The importance of achieving a higher rate of early resolution in trials is deal with elsewhere in this report.

The number of sentencing proceedings in the Supreme Court was also at an all time high. Some 222 accused were sentenced after being committed for sentence or changing their plea to guilty. (This does not include persons pleading not guilty and sentenced after being found guilty). The record high number was partly explained by the tail end of the Blitz (as a result of which, as outlined last year, a number of changes of plea were obtained). However, it is mainly reflective of an effort from the Court to complete matters.

To put this result in perspective, here are the figures for the number of sentencing proceedings in the last 5 years:

Appeals

Appeals, too, were at record highs during the year. Supreme Court appeals totalled 89, the highest on record. Court of Appeal appeals totalled 41. Again, this was the highest on record, the highest previously being 24. By way of comparison the long term average for the previous 21 years of the operation of the office was 39.3 Supreme Court appeals per year, and 16 Court of Appeal appeals per year.

For context, here are the figures for the number of appeals in the last 5 years: