Archbold cites Richard Wood's Court of Appeal case

Last year Richard Wood successfully appeared for the Crown in an appeal against conviction in R v Smith (Joseph Alexander) [2013] EWCA Crim 11; [2013] 2 Cr. App. R. 5. The case now appears in the 2014 Archbold at 1-134, 7-75 and 29-37. Where the Crown Court had unlawfully ordered that a count charging a summary offence under section 4 of the Public Order Act 1986 be added to an indictment for affray, the defendant had pleaded guilty to the summary offence and the prosecution had offered no evidence on the affray, the error was only procedural and did not deprive the court of jurisdiction to convict on the summary offence. A plea to the original count of not guilty of affray but guilty to the summary offence had always been available (as an alternative to affray), by virtue of section 7(3) of the Act, and the defendant had not been prejudiced or mislead by the irregularity. Conviction upheld. (R v Clarke and McDaid [2008] UKHL 8 applied; R v Ashton; R v Clarke; R v O'Reilly [EWCA] Crim 794 distinguished.)

10th February 2014