Court Hearing

[NewToThis1966]

Hello

As my name suggests, I am new to this.

A very brief synopsis of what is going on for me at the moment.

I am a prosecution witness in an upcoming trial. I have recently discovered the defendant has pleaded guilty to a similar crime to which they are being prosecuted for in the trial I am a witness in. I haven't been in touch with the victim since the offence took place. I don't know if they know about the defendant's recent guilty verdict.

What I am interested in knowing is, would the prosecuting legal team be aware of the defendant's recent court hearing? Also, would that recent court hearing be mentioned as part of the prosecution's case? I only found out about the recent trial because I googled the defendant's name, so it is public knowledge and has been reported in the press.

I've not mentioned any details about he parties, nor the case, so don't believe I am breaking any rules.

Thank you in advance.

They will know.

It will not be discussed in the trial in court or in the coverage of this trial while it is in progress.

Do not discuss it with anyone else. Just answer questions you are asked. It is deemed not relevant to what you witnessed if you did not know it at the time.

It will be raised in court at sentencing if he is found guilty.

This is not exactly true. The prosecution can adduce it as evidence of bad character during the trial (the judge has to allow this)

You as a witness, will be confirming the content of the statements you gave of what happened at the time. What you currently know is not part of your evidence and you should not bring it up during the trial. You could let the prosecution team know that you are aware of the other case so that they can block you accidently bringing it up.

It is highly unlikely that his passed criminal act would be admitted as evidence if they dont directly relate to the case and may introduce bias within the jury pool. The police will have a full arrest record which would be part of the case file. its likely that the defence will have made a case at the "before/start of" trial about the other trial dates and jury selection for a fair trial etc.

The defence team may be limited in saying he is of good character, it never happended before, one off incident etc but you as a witness would not see that playout over the trial.

A friend was on a case where the defendent was brought in by prison guards but they were warned not to do "independant" research on anything related to the case and to only judge the case on the actual evidence presented in court.

Also I would not discuss the other trial with the victim in your trial. There is no way to guess how this trial would go and it puts added pressure on someone who is "only" a witness too.

Thank you for your responses. I know not to discuss this or any aspect of the trial, and I will only answer questions on what I actually witnessed, which is all in my statement.

I just wanted to know what bearing the recent court hearing (guilty verdict) would have on the current hearing. The two crimes are of a similar nature.

Thanks for explaining.

Prosecution can ask the judge (without the jury present) for the defendant's recent conviction to be put to the jury as evidence of his bad character (certain conditions have to be met for that). If it's a recent conviction for a very similar offence it's likely the judge will allow the prosecution to tell the jury about it.

Assuming this is a trial at the Crown Court in England or Wales.

Yes, the trial is in England.

I assume the legal team for the prosecution will have made their own enquiries about the defendant, especially given the recent guilty reporting is now in the public domain.

It's is Crown Court too.