Jack Thatcher. Like his father, Jack Thatcher is a jailbird – at the age of 40 he has spent most of his life in  prison for various offences of  violence and theft. He comes from a broken home, has had no real education and has never had a job. The only way he knows how to make money is by stealing it. When he came out of prison last week, he decided to rob a village post office. During the robbery, the postmaster tried to ring the alarm, so Jack hit him on the head with his gun. At that moment a customer came into the post-office. She screamed. In panic, Jack shouted at her to keep quiet. When she continued to scream, he shot her. Jack thought quickly. He took a box of matches from his pocket and set fire to the building, then escaped with the money.

Annette Forbes. Annette Forbes is head of the marketing division of the computer company. She went to university, has a good job and enjoys a happy family life. She has always been a «law-abiding citizen». One day she arrived a little late for work, and had to park her car in a no-parking zone. She took a client out for a business lunch and drank a gin and tonic, half a bottle of wine and a liqueur to celebrate an important new contract. When driving back to work, she was stopped by a policeman, who tested her breath for alcohol. He told her she had drunk too much and would be disqualified from driving for a year. Annette (who needs her car for her job) suggested he might «forget» about the offence in return for a new home computer. That afternoon, Annette remembered that she had no more writing- paper at home. As usual, she took a new packet of paper from the office and a box of six pencils.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The prosecution of offenders in England and Wales is the responsibility of the Crown Prosecution Service. It was set up in 1986 to prosecute criminal cases resulting from police investigations. The Head of the CPS is the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). The CPS handles about 1,4 million cases every year and employs about 6,000 staff. Over 2,000 of these staff are barristers or solicitors. The staff are located in 98 offices throughout England and Wales.

Before 1986, the police investigated crimes, charged suspects and then took cases to court, sometimes using their own, or a local lawyer. This changed under the Prosecution of Offenders Act 1985, which created the CPS and separated the investigation stage from the prosecution stage. Now the CPS makes the decision whether to continue a case and bring to court.

The Prosecution Process. After the Police have investigated a crime and passed the papers to the CPS, one of the lawyers – called   a Crown Prosecutor – carefully reviews the papers to decide whether  or not to go ahead with the case. The prosecutor’s decision is based on the two tests set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors.

The code is a booklet which sets out the general principles which prosecutors must apply when they decide whether to continue a case.

1. The two tests set out in the Code are as follows:
2. Is there enough evidence?
3. Is it «in the public interest» for us to prosecute?

A case has to pass both these tests before the CPS can start or continue a prosecution. To examine a case, the prosecutor reviews it to see if there is enough evidence to provide a «realistic prospect of conviction». If there is not, and the police say there is no more evidence or none will become available in the nearest future, the case will be stopped there. However, the police can be asked to look at the case again, if more evidence becomes available at a late date.       

 If the prosecutor thinks that there is enough evidence to start or  continue a prosecution, he or she will then consider whether a prosecution is needed «in the public interest». This means that the prosecutor must think carefully about all the factors for and against a prosecution, and assess in each case whether a prosecution should go ahead. Some of the public interest factors which are taken into account are set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors.