Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer has personally apologized to a woman, named only 'Josephine' for legal reasons. She was accused by the Crown prosecution of prejudging her own case.
She was also awarded £16,000 for damages as it was admitted her Human Rights had been infringed upon.
The Crown Prosecution Service now admits that she should have had a retrial.
Josephine claimed she had been sexually assaulted and was giving evidence in court when she let slip that the man she was accusing had been in prison.
Such facts are inadmissible if they have no relevance to the case. The trial was dropped in a way in that Josephine feels left her uninformed.
She had been promised to be able to give her evidence behind a screen. The screen was not supplied and she was "terrified" while being questioned in front of the man she said attacked her.
Alison Saunders, the Chief Crown Prosecutor, apologized in a letter last June. The letter said that Josephine's barrister, the prosecutor and the prosecutor's manager would all be put before the Joint Advocate Selection Committee to see if they should still practice.
The portion of the legal guidance chapter on supplying witnesses with copies of their statements that deals with prejudicial/inadmissible evidence being used in witness statements has been changed to include that "the witness should clearly be advised by the prosecutor …which parts of their statement should not be alluded to and the reasons for this."
