Setting aside of District Court judgment in Pusher Street case

Case no. 93/2019
Order made on 7 October 2019

The Prosecution Service
vs.
T1-T10

The District Court had convicted T1-T10 of extensive cannabis dealing. During the proceedings in the District Court, the counsel appearing for the prosecution, A, and the police agents who gave testimony in court were in contact. This was not disclosed to the counsel for the defendant or the District Court.

During the appeal proceedings in the High Court, where B appeared for the prosecution, there was contact between B and the police agents. B gave the High Court incorrect information on this contact and tried to make the police agents give a false testimony about their contact with B.

The case before the Supreme Court concerned the issue of whether the District Court’s judgment should be set aside, and the case be remitted for reconsideration by the District Court due to the contact between the prosecutor and the police agents in the District Court. At issue in the case was also whether the Prosecution Service should be barred from calling the police agents as witnesses during the rest of the proceedings.

The Supreme Court found no basis for assuming that the contact between the prosecutor and the police agents in the District Court could have affected the police agents’ testimonies to the detriment of the accused, or that any errors had been made in the proceedings before the District Court that could affect the outcome of the case. The fact that the contact between the prosecutor and the police agents had not been disclosed to the defence counsel and the Court could not lead to a different result. The Supreme Court thus agreed that the District Court’s judgment should not be set aside.

In addition, the Supreme Court held that the Prosecution Service was allowed to call the police agents as witnesses before the High Court.

The High Court had reached the same conclusion.