Preliminaries to trial in the Crown Court

Fitness to plead
If D found unfit to plead AND jury find that he committed the offence:

 He may have a hospital order

 Supervision order
 Order for his absolute discharge

Question of fitness shall be determined as soon as it arises without a jury.

Arraignment

Procedure

 Clerk court reads the indictment to the accused and asks him whether he pleads
guilty or not guilty.

 If there are several counts, plea taken for each immediately after each one is read
out.

 More than one D arraigned together- Plea taken separately.

 Arraignment can be done via a live link.

Arraignment done without jury.

Jury are not told which counts the D pleaded guilty to so to avoid prejudice.

Plea that may be entered

D can plead not guilty as charged but guilty of a lesser (alternative) offence.

Plea of not guilty

Not necessarily to use the words not guilty.
If D stays silent or is ambiguous- taken as a plea of NOT-GUILTY.

Plea of Guilty
Plea of guilty should be done personally by the accused- NOT counsel.
Mixed pleas
Where D has given mixed pleas and the P is not ready to accept plea, the sentencing for the
guilty pleas should be postponed until after trial on not-guilty counts.
Plea of guilty to lesser offence
If plea of lesser offence is accepted, D is treated as having being acquitted for the offence
actually charged and court proceeds to sentencing for lesser offence.
If prosecution refuses to call evidence on prove D guilty as charged, then court has to accept
plea of lesser offence.

Prosecution offers no evidence

If prosecution offers no evidence on charge, the court may order that a not-guilty verdict
shall be recorded.

Alternative to offering no evidence

The Prosecution can ask the judge to order that the count lie on the file.
Usually where D has pleaded guilty to most charges, but not to the subsidiary charges
against him and the evidence against him is in fact strong.
Changing pleas

1. From not guilty to guilty

Can be done at any stage prior to jury returning their verdict.
In this case, the jury is asked to return a verdict of guilty.

2. From guilty to not-guilty

Judge has discretion to allow change before sentence passed.

Pre-trial and Trial Preparation Hearing (PTPH)

Preliminary Hearings

Where a deferred prosecution agreement is proposed then a preliminary hearing must

occur at which the court will be invited to declare that it is ‘likely to be in the interests of
justice’ that the prosecution and accused enter into a deferred prosecution agreement and
that the proposed terms of the agreement are ‘fair, reasonable and proportionate’.
Plea and Trial Preparation Hearings
PTPH will be the major pre-trial hearing (unless a preparatory hearing is needed).
Purpose of PTPH where D entered guilty plea in mags court is for sentencing.
In all other cases, to ensure that all steps for the proper preparation of a case for trial have
been taken or are properly timetabled.
Initial details must be provided to D 7 days before PTPH if D on bail.

Applications for dismissal

D may after being sent documents with charges but before arraignment apply to Crown
Court either orally or in writing for charges to b dismissed.
The Judge must dismiss any charge if evidence against D would not be sufficient for him
to be properly convicted.
The accused may make an oral application for dismissal only if he gives written notice of
intention to do so.
Judge must look at evidence as a whole and draw inferences or conclusions which the
prosecution proposes to ask the jury to do.