A man who denied he had breached his curfew blames “a dodgy kabab” for confining him to his bathroom during a compliance check.
Stratford Magistrates Court heard that the defendant, who has outstanding matters before the court and is therefore not being identified, was given an electronic ankle tag to enforce a curfew whilst he is on bail pending a trial at Woolwich Crown Court.
Responding to an allegation he had failed to observe his court court imposed curfew on 23rd Jan 2022 (ie yesterday) he stood to respond – “100% Not guilty”.
The barrister representing the CPS told the court that there had been a number of breaches reported by the electronic monitoring system that evening.
The first is said to have occurred between 19.00 and 19.33. The second between 19.34 and 19.40. The machine reported being moved at 19.53. The forth breach apparently showed the defendant leaving his house at 20.03 and returning at 20.10.
The Electronic Monitoring Service is said to have visited the property between 22.35 and 22.47 with the defendants brother reportedly telling them that their man was in the bathroom. A line from the EMS’s log stated the subject “did not out come”(sic).
The barrister representing the defendant told the court that her client believes the machine to be faulty. The defendant claimed to have sent over 10 e-mails to his solicitor reporting the faults but nothing had happened.
Upon District Judge William Nelson asking whether he had spent 12 minutes on the toilet, the defendants barrister replied “he informed me he had a dodgy kabab.“
Handing down Judgment DJ Nelson explained that “in the circumstances I’m not satisfied that the defendant has been leaving the property on each and every time. It does seem odd in these circumstances he would leave for 7 mins, 10 mins and then continually through the night. It suggests there’s a problem with the box. Albeit it is rather odd to be in the toilet for 12 minutes.”
Address the defendant directly DJ Nelson explained he hadn’t “found the breach proved today. You really need to get on top of it.“
This prompted some anger from the defendant who replied “I’m the one getting arrested every week for it. I’ve done nothing wrong. I don’t know what else to do.“
Mouse in the Court 