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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) Decisions >> McCarthy, R v [2014] EWCA Crim 1963 (23 September 2014) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2014/1963.html Cite as: [2014] EWCA Crim 1963 |
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CRIMINAL DIVISION
Strand London, WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
MR JUSTICE IRWIN
MR JUSTICE SPENCER
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R E G I N A | ||
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STACIE McCARTHY |
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Mr E Hand appeared on behalf of the Crown
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Crown Copyright ©
"Well, you have heard that Stacie McCarthy is a young woman, now aged nearly 25 years old, she was 23 at the time of this collision, and she has two young daughters, again they are now aged seven and two, obviously nearly a couple of years younger at the time. She is of good character in the sense that she does not have any convictions or cautions recorded against her. You have heard that she works as a care worker for the elderly, and obviously she has to juggle a busy and demanding lifestyle with running a home and family as well as work, and she manages to do that, and you have heard glowing testimonials about her from statements that were read about how she manages to do that.
But what you did also hear in those last letters from people who know her and have written about her good qualities is that they seem to refer to the fact that she was a careful and competent driver."
"Well, members of the jury, the experts in this case could not tell you whether she was a careful and competent driver on 19th September 2012. That is your task, your function in this trial, that is something that you have to be clear about, you decide that from the facts and the letters that you had read out to you from various well-intentioned people saying that every time they have been with her she had been a careful and competent driver is in no way designed to usurp your function as to what you find about her driving on 19th September 2012. Those people cannot assist you with that and therefore you should ignore their views about saying that she is a careful and competent driver; as I say, even the collision experts did not seek to try and tell you that.
The fact of the matter is that it is not the Crown's case that Stacie McCarthy is habitually careless, that is not the way that this case has been put against her, but what they do say is that you can be sure that on this occasion, very sadly, 19th September, this was one occasion when they say she was careless and as a result of her carelessness an innocent pedestrian was killed.
So, as I say, so far as those letters that you had read out to you are concerned, you should give them no weight insofar as feeling that they decide for you the issue of whether Stacie McCarthy was a careful and competent driver on 19th September 2012."