Ban pre-trial publicity as journalists have a 'licence to kill', claims Barrymore solicitor

MEDIA: David Corker slams current law that press articles must be prejudicial on their own

The solicitor for entertainer Michael Barrymore has called for a ban on pre-trial publicity in the media, maintaining that journalists had a 'licence to kill' by using their chequebooks to poison the well of justice.

David Corker, of London-based Corker Binning solicitors, was speaking at a conference session on the government's recent Criminal Justice White paper.

He said the most dramatic example was the press coverage of the arrests of Ian Huntley for murder and Maxine Carr for allegedly attempting to pervert the course of justice over the deaths of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Mr Corker pointed out: 'The media is not to blame; the problem is that the law is an inadequate safeguard.' He said the current law that press articles must be prejudicial on their own - rather than in the context of the general coverage - meant that no individual article was ever found to breach the threshold.

Mr Corker called for a ban on pre-trial publicity, saying that if this did not happen the system would develop into a US-style approach, with defence solicitors giving pre-trial press conferences and appointing public relations agents.

Such a system would benefit only rich defendants, he said.

Mr Corker also criticised the recent Home Office consultation proposals for advance disclosure of defence witness lists and unused defence expert reports.

He said that these proposals would disarm defendants in relation to the prosecution, which would not be obliged to make such disclosure.

Mr Corker said: 'The government believes that the defence should operate on the adversarial model, and the prosecution should operate on the inquisitorial model.

They can't have it both ways.'

Ian Francis, the Law Society's Council member for Norfolk and a senior special caseworker for the Crown Prosecution Service, said the jury system was the place to start with reform.

He said: 'There is a bloated edifice of common law relating to the extent to which disclosure to the jury should be permitted.' It was time, he added, that juries were trusted with more evidence.

Jeremy Fleming