Case Stated

R. (on the application of S) v Croydon Magistrates' Court

Ben Douglas-Jones appeared for the DPP in an appeal concerning a district judge's refusal to adjourn a trial days before it was listed.  The decision was Wednesbury unreasonable where the decision was made in the absence of relevant evidence.

A renewed application for an adjournment on the morning of the trial with the benefit of the missing evidence should have been dealt with as though the magistrates were in the judge's position days earlier, and without taking the presence of witnesses into account.