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England and Wales Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) Decisions |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) Decisions >> Mercer, R v [2009] EWCA Crim 2100 (9 October 2009) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2009/2100.html Cite as: [2009] EWCA Crim 2100, [2010] 1 Cr App R (S) 104, [2010] 1 Cr App Rep (S) 104 |
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CRIMINAL DIVISION
Strand London, WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
MR JUSTICE BLAIR
HIS HONOUR JUDGE ROGERS QC
(Sitting as a Judge of the CACD)
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R E G I N A | ||
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JANETTE MERCER |
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WordWave International Limited
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165 Fleet Street London EC4A 2DY
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"I own a mountain bike. It is black, cream and orange. The police have taken possession of it. I don't ride any others and have no other access to mountain bikes."
He was released from custody.
"I have been asked about Sean's bicycle. He only had one bicycle. I have no idea how long he had this bicycle. I can only say it was a mountain bike and had a beige colour on it. That is all I can remember about the bicycle."
It was the Crown's case that every aspect of that statement was deliberately and misleadingly false and was designed to be tailored to her son's account in interview.
1. She had been involved in negotiations in relation to the replacement of her son's stolen bike which resulted in the silver Specialised mountain bike being delivered to her home.
2. She was present during her son's interview on 25th August 2007 when he signed a statement saying that the only bike he owned was black/cream.
3. She admitted that in her statement of 7th September she said: "He only had one bicycle, I have no idea how long he had this bicycle. I can only say it was a mountain bike and had a beige colour on it."
4. In those circumstances she admitted that in failing to mention the silver bike and mentioning another bike she gave information which she knew could mislead the enquiry and in doing so intended to pervert the course of public justice.
"... it is a longstanding principle that perverting the course of justice is so serious an offence that it is almost always necessary to impose an immediate custodial sentence unless there are exceptional circumstances..."
In assessing the gravity of the offence in a case like this the most relevant factors are identified in the case of R v Tunney [2007] 1 Cr.App.R (S) 565. They are the seriousness of the substantive offence, the degree of persistence in the misleading conduct and the effect of the attempt to pervert the course of justice on that course of justice.