Step 11 - Report writing and presenting evidence in court

When writing a report to present into court you need to make a case file on the crime/case, for the case file you need to include: any previous convictions of anybody involved in the case, a basic summary of the case which is written by the officer dealing with the case, witness statements, an itemized list of any evidence and exhibits (photographs, any filming etc), an analysis of any forensic evidence available , the crown prosecution service (CPS) then will present the whole case to court based on this case file, CPS will always prosecute the case in the court first then the defense will follow will their case file. When both sides have presented their evidence they will both summarize and the judge will then make a final decision. This stage is very important as this is where you present all the information you have gathered from the moment of the initial call of the notification of the crime right through to this stage so it is important to have as much information as possible. for every case this stage can go differently or happen in a different way, it all depends on how much evidence you have and witness statements. This stage is the most important because without it a criminal wouldn’t be prosecuted and put away for the crime they committed this is the final stage and enables the whole investigation to conclude. If this stage was doing incorrectly, for example if the evidence was overlooked in court and not counted because it was contaminated a person may be set free who actually committed a crime because the evidence wasn’t strong enough to prosecute them. This is also most significant because it is the conclusion of the case. During court cases media try to get in and get the final story for the papers which they have been building up to. This is because people will want to read this story and find out the judgement that was made. But due to the media getting it out to the rest of the world it can cause ethical issues as people may believe the wrong judgement was made. This is the main part which can cause a successful outcome because depending on how the evidence and information are portrayed to the judge a different analysis is made. If the evidence is more clear and supporting than the other defences the defence will win the trial. So the successful outcome depends on all the other steps put together but also depends on how successful and appealing the presentation of evidence in court is.
There is a court case for every crime committed however depending on if the suspect says guilt or not guilty can be how long the court lasts for as some court cases can take weeks to months to years. To successfully pursue your case in court it is necessary to have evidence to back up your claim. You can't just think you have a case, you must be able to prove it. Evidence can take several forms such as documents, sound and video recordings and witness statements (written statements about what the witness saw or heard).  Evidence can also be given through oral statements (testimony) made at court by witnesses. There are a number of rules of evidence which have been established to ensure fairness in the trial process and to ensure that the best evidence is admitted, ethics has to be considered in the court room, every suspect and witness needs to be treated fairly and all information has to stay within the court and to be kept confidential. if there is not enough evidence to prosecute someone then this can cause the suspect to be eliminated or can cause for the court case to go on for a lot longer.

An example of this can be seen as when the evidence was presented in court. there was a lot of evidence to present in court such as 49 fibres found matching the girls shirts on Huntleys clothes, the girls mobile phone, Huntleys car which he had tried to get repaired and changed the tyres but soil matching the crime scene was found in his wheels, 154 Fibres from his carpet and of Huntleys and the girls hair, the Man United shirts. The prosecution entered exhaustive evidence linking Huntley to the girls and after the trial on the 5^th of November 2003 began 3 weeks later after Huntley denying any knowledge of the murder he then changed his story saying the girls had died in his house but he claimed both deaths where accidental, . The defense called Huntley as their first witness, and he described how he had accidentally knocked Holly Wells into the bath, whilst helping her control a nosebleed, and had accidentally suffocated Jessica when she started to scream, and he had tried to silence her. However on the cross-examination prosecution described this as absolute rubbish. Maxine Carr’s testimony began three days later, when it was claimed she had no control over the events and that had she of known about Huntley's events she would never of lied to protect him. The information they had about Huntley was a lot and also from the previous convictions. After 5 days the jury rejected Huntley’s claims about how the girls had died accidentally and on the 17^th of December 2003 Huntley was sentenced to life imprisonment however the was a delay on this because the 2003 criminal justice act came into force the day after which made Huntley not eligible for a whole life tariff so he was given 40 years with no hope for release. This stage of the investigation process produced a very successful outcome for the case and was very important as Huntley was found guilty and sentenced and also his accomplish Maxine Carr was charged as well.