A Fair Cop Blog

In March 2009, Chris Huhne made a public announcement that any police officer convicted of a violent or dishonesty offence should be dismissed in a bid to “get tough with bad apples” in the service. I wonder if his views extend to politicians given his being charged with perverting the course of justice yesterday after his ex-wife, Vicky Price, allegedly accepted speeding penalty points on his behalf in 2003.  Pryce reported the matter to the police after learning of Huhne’s affair with his aide, Carina Trimingam.

You can see my original post about Huhne here

I have done dozens of author talks, literary events and the like since the publication of A Fair Cop. I have several booked in for 2012 already and I took a number of bookings over the festive period. My talks have a slightly different slant to them now, as I am in the final stages of writing and finishing The Dark Side.

If you would like me to talk at your local library, bookshop, Mother’s Union, Probus or any other group you are a member of, please contact me via the ‘contact the author’ link on my website and I will be in touch. Thank you.

Happy New Year, everyone. I hope 2012 is a great year for all of you.

May I take this opportunity to thank everyone for their supportive comments after my radio interview yesterday? Being able to pick all the music for an hour was a great experience although I didn’t really get the opportunity to explain to Liz the complexities of the Criminal Appeal Act and the barriers it mounts against certain applicants.  Over 5,000 convictions are overturned each year in England, and there are many more that don’t make it for the wrong reasons. I guess radio presenters are there to provoke a response from the interviewee in the best interests of the listeners. I hope that my next book will convince anyone that doubts my innocence that I simply did not commit this crime.

Once again, I would like to thank you for your support now and over the past year. I hope you have a peaceful Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Liz Green is a presenter on BBC Radio Leeds. She hosts a show between 2pm and 3pm each day of the week called One on One in which she interviews the great, the good (and in my case, the ordinary) folk of Yorkshire and beyond. I will spend an hour with Liz on Thursday 22nd December 2011 talking about my life before and after events in A Fair Cop. Most excitingly, I get to chose all the music.

It is a genuine privilege to be asked and I can’t wait, though there is a bit of me wondering, who would want to listen to me talking for all that time? I hope I don’t disappoint….

As a result of new evidence I have found whilst researching The Dark Side, I made an approach to the CCRC. The CCRC immediately opened a new application meaning they are now reviewing the new evidence in order to decide whether or not to refer my case to the Court of Appeal.

Since my original  application in 2008, I have learned that the CCRC is bound to work within the confines of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 meaning that strong evidence casting doubt over a conviction, through no fault of the CCRC’s, may not be referred to the Court of Appeal.

The evidence I have put forward this time is not only the strongest I have put forward to date, but it also circumnavigates the barriers put up by the Criminal Appeal Act 1995.

There will be more of this in my book, but suffice to say, I am now in communication with the Legal Ombudsman, the Bar Standards Board and the Solicitors Regulation Authority in connection with the evidence I have adduced.

I can only hope that finally, after over a decade of trying, my case gets referred to the Court of Appeal for the first time so that the credibility of this evidence can be scrutinised in a formal judicial process.

This link takes you to a letter dated 19th August 2011 that was sent to the Chief Executive of HarperCollins publishers by Russell Jones and Walker solicitors regarding my next book, The Dark Side. The letter was sent on behalf of my defence solicitor and counsel after I interviewed them in connection with the book. I asked them both why they had not considered using forensic psychiatric evidence to assist my defence. Both were adamant that there was no reason to consider such evidence with counsel saying that, ‘there was no suggestion that Michael Bunting had suffered and kind of mental incapacity such as to affect his ability to think rationally at the time of the incident.’

It is a matter of fact that my assailant was convicted of assaulting me after he punched me to the head and face numerous times with the force required to break one of my teeth. It is accepted that these blows were sufficient to cause a concussive state.

The evidence I obtained from a renowned forensic psychiatrist could not deviate further from the assertion made by counsel. He says, ”It can be said that acts carried out in a state of concussion are not the product of reasoned thinking. If the part of the brain that records memory is sufficiently concussed not to work properly, the parts involved in forming intent are also likely to be impaired. In this way concussion may prevent the formation of mens rea.’ 

I sent both counsel and my solicitor an email on 15th and 17th August 2011 pointing out this evidence and invited their comments.  Neither of them replied. The letter to HarperCollins was sent just a matter of days later.

As I have said from the outset (and indeed I am quoted as saying in the letter), my single intention is to print all the verifiable facts of the judicial process that led to my conviction. I have absolutely no intention of misrepresenting anyone.

I have drawn a number of conclusions from this letter.

I am currently 40,000 words in…..

It’s been a busy week with a couple of appearances on BBC Radio Leeds commenting on the riots we witnessed last week. My views of giving tough sentences to anyone convicted of offences connected to the disorder was welcomed by many listeners. Dealing with these thugs is not rocket science; it’s simple. It does not need emergency meetings with ministers or advice from American super-cops. When it happens again, it needs plenty of police on the streets with the backing of their Chief Constables.

I am encouraged by the sentences being dished out by the courts and I hope these serve as a deterrent to any others intending to wreak havoc on our streets in the future.

Work on The Dark Side continues……

Here is my updated profile on Amazon. Please do register your interest in my next book via the link on my website.

I write this post in response to Ken Clarke’s comments about self-defence on 29th June 2011. When speaking to a BBC Correspondent, Mr Clarke said that, ‘a householder who stabbed a burglar would not have committed a criminal offence.’ This, I’m afraid, will create a false sense of security for anyone thinking they can stab someone simply because they are burgling their home. They can’t and they never will be allowed to. The law on self-defence says that a person can use only whatever force is reasonable to protect himself, another or his property in the face of perceived or actual violence (and in the case of a police officer, to pursue an arrest). A burglar is not exempt from this law.

For Mr Clarke to say,’we all know what we mean when we say a person has an absolute right to defend themselves and their homes,’ is simply wrong. Everyone has a different interpretation of what is reasonable and ultimately, as has always been the case, it is the opinion of the 12 people sitting on the jury that matters and not Mr Clarke’s.

Everyone that has spoken to me about the force I used to defend myself as I tried to arrest a drunken thug who repeatedly punched me to the head, has said that what I did was clearly right in law. Unfortunately, and due to the subjective nature of the interpretation of the law (and the word reasonable), the judge and jury were not so clear.

Mr Clarke’s comments are misleading, untrue and dangerous to anyone thinking of defending themselves or their home in the face of violence. I have tried to contact Mr Clarke several times since he took up his post as Justice Secretary. I have had no response.