How Long Does It Take For A Case To Be Heard At Crown Court

[Emmawilde]

Someone I know has been remanded for affray with threats to kill and criminal damage it's going to crown, he suffers with severe mental health problems and has been sectioned in the past, and has been sectioned a few times, he is not well, he doesn't really have a criminal record apart from drunken disorderly 10 years ago. He was arrested and bailed over a year ago for criminal damage but as he was sectioned 3days later for 4months the courts took it no further, what would be the outcome for this do u think, would it be a custodial sentence? Thankyou very much

[Buenchico]

Cases get sent to the Crown Court for three main reasons:
1. The defendant demands his right for the case to be heard by a jury, rather than by magistrates ;
2. The magistrates think that there are complex legal issues involved, which require the attention of the Crown Court ;
3. The magistrates are of the opinion that, if the defendant is convicted, their sentencing powers won't be great enough.

Since 1 & 2, above, would seem to be unlikely, it seems clear that the magistrates were of the opinion that a custodial sentence of greater than 6 months is a likely outcome. (Magistrates can sentence offenders to up to 6 months imprisonment for a single offence, or up to 12 months for multiple offences). However you should note that judges often don't see things the way that magistrates do (or they're in possession of more information about the case), so the fact the case has been sent to Crown court should not be seen as meaning that a custodial sentence is automatic. (There are plenty of Crown Court cases where non-custodial sentences are passed).

Your main question (about how long the case might take to get dealt with at the Crown Court) is one of those 'how long is a piece of string' type questions. A few cases might get through all of the stages in 4 or 5 months but a time span of 9 to 15 months is probably far more common.

If the person you refer to has been remanded into custody a custodial sentence might actually not be a bad thing for him anyway. For example, if an 18 month custodial sentence was to be passed, he'd actually only serve only 9 months but if he'd already been on remand for that length of time (or longer) he'd be released immediately. (NB: My figure of 18 months was simply plucked out of the air for illustrative purposes. I'm not suggesting that it will be the actual sentence. Without knowing what the psychological reports will say - as they'll almost certainly be called for - it's hard to predict the judge's line of thinking on this case).

[Peter Pedant]

one of my neighbours is on bail for four years - entering his fifth
and is also a badly controlled schizophrenic

so .... dont hold your breath

[ already had an acquittal on technicality, May 14 and so they all put their notebooks together and came up with Feb 15 for retrial ]