Blunders Let Hundreds Escape Justice

Hundreds of criminals, including those accused of sexual offences, have avoided prosecution after a “cover-up” in magistrates’ courts, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, is to admit that over a period of “many years” hundreds of cases never came to court because warrants were not issued for the arrests of defendants when they failed to show up at court.

It means that the offenders got away with their crimes. Mr Straw has known about the cases, which initially involved Leeds magistrates’ court but are suspected could go much wider, for some weeks.

He has ordered an urgent inquiry because he is unsure whether the failures have been caused by gross incompetence, negligence or foul play.

The cases at Leeds involve defendants “failing to appear” at court when they should. That should automatically trigger an arrest warrant. Court officials should have informed the police so the case could still be completed and the defendant tried. But in these cases the police were not informed.

The police were therefore unable to chase down the criminals and instead, in many instances, the cases were simply written off. One fear is that corruption may be involved.

It is thought that hundreds of criminals have simply walked away and got away with their crimes. Sources revealed last night that there were sex offenders among them.

Mr Straw is expected to ask for a full list of those defendants who did not face trial so they can be tracked down now. He has not yet made a statement to the Commons over the affair, but is expected to in the next few days.

The failure will heap embarrassment on the Government at a time when it is reeling from a succession of blows that strike at the heart of Labour’s competence.

Last week, Gordon Brown was forced to apologise for the names and details of 25 million people on the child support system going missing when two discs were lost. The practice of not informing the police has, according to a Government source, been going on for years at Leeds. He added that what had been going on was clearly “covered up” for a long time.

Mr Straw has now, it is understood, sent in an inspector from the Inspectorate of Courts Administration to carry out a full inquiry. Part of the investigation will involve finding out how many other magistrates’ courts have been affected.

The problems stem from when the Magistrates’ Courts Committee that oversaw those courts was scrapped in 2005. The new body, HM Courts Service, was set up and reported directly to the Home Office, and now the Ministry of Justice.

New officials at the HMCS carried out a “review of processes” and found that over a period of years there had been prolonged failure in issuing arrest warrants.

Last night, Greg Mulholland, the Liberal Democrat MP for Leeds North West, said: “This is an appalling example of systematic, institutional incompetence that will shatter local confidence in the criminal justice system. An urgent and thorough investigation is needed.”