Police: slated for spying and eavesdropping on discussions between lawyers and clients

Criminal defence solicitors have welcomed a Court of Appeal ruling that has forbidden the police to spy or eavesdrop on privileged discussions between lawyers and their clients, even if the evidence does not prejudice the proceedings.


Ruling last month in R v Grant [2005] EWCA Crim 1089 - a successful appeal against the conviction of the defendant, Edward Grant, for hiring a hitman to murder his wife's lover - Lord Justice Laws said any deliberate interference with a detained suspect's right to privileged communications with a solicitor seriously undermined the rule of law.


In Grant, privileged conversations between the defendant and his solicitor, which had taken place in the exercise yard of Sleaford police station at the time of the interview, had been deliberately eavesdropped on and tape-recorded by police.


The defence requested a stay of proceedings on the grounds that there was an abuse of process, which was denied by the trial judge. The Court of Appeal subsequently agreed that the taping of the conversation had not given the prosecution an advantage, but slated the police actions as being abusive and contrary to both domestic and international human rights laws, and quashed Mr Grant's conviction.


Andrew Keogh, a partner at leading crime firm Tuckers and head of free on-line information service Crimeline, said: 'This ruling is a welcome development that marks a substantial shift in thinking as far as applications for abuse of process are concerned. Despite numerous previous cases in which judges have deprecated spying on legal discussion, the police have failed to heed good practice. The courts are now acting directly to punish flagrant breaches of solicitor/client privilege, and as a result police are less likely to risk prejudicing the case as a whole.'