Court Report: 6th August 2020 @ Snaresbrook Crown Court
I’m before His Honour Judge P Southern in Court 5 for the 11am Sentencing of Mr ‘ZD’.
At first glance this seems like it’s going to be fairly straightforward. The case has already been opened and fully mitigated and all parties agree it’s a category 2B Street Robbery (one ponders for a second how often the line 2B or not 2B is used in court).
It’s submitted that what prevented sentencing being passed at the last hearing was conflicting reports about how meetings between ZD and the probation service had gone.
The mother submits in a witness statement that she had e-mailed probation to explain that the family were all going away on holiday and so ZD would be unavailable for the meetings that week. However the probation service must have missed this as upon return from holiday the police were sent to speak to ZD because of the non-attendance.
It seems quite an easy dispute to sort out and discussions with probation would reveal the truth of the matter. Hence the adjournment of the hearing from July 23rd to today.
Surprisingly though no report from probation had been forthcoming. The manager who is dealing with the case is (rather amusingly) on holiday and unable to respond.
This is now the second time an entire court has assembled to decide sentence and the second time the matter is being adjourned, this time until 14th Aug. The judge will “proceed to sentence regardless” as the defendant “is entitled to know the outcome”. I wonder what the poor victim is entitled to?
Mouse in the Court 