PHONE TAPPING: prosecutors could strike deals with junior members of criminal organisations

Human rights lawyers gave firm backing last week to the use of intercept evidence in court, as the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) said that opposition to its use 'does not stand scrutiny'.


Supporting comments from the Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith earlier in the week, Ken Macdonald QC said that evidence from telephone tapping had been used with 'a great deal of success' abroad - and had led to the imprisonment of mafia godfathers in New York.


Speaking at a Law Society debate on the rule of law in London, he said: 'The sooner we can use intercept evidence, the sooner we can stop talking about secret courts and detention without charge.


'When it comes to protecting sources and techniques from probing questions from the defence, we already have public interest immunity hearings, which determine whether a full transcript would assist the defence, or undermine national security... the fear that the way it is all done will be revealed to a lucky defendant is wrong. And you can always walk away from the case.'


Mr Macdonald added that intercept evidence enabled prosecutors to strike a deal with more junior members of criminal organisations and then 'get them to 'phone their boss' to gain the evidence needed for a conviction.


Barrister Eric Metcalfe, director of human rights policy at Justice, said: 'We are very strongly in favour of intercept being used - it is allowed in every other common law jurisdiction, and you can already use evidence obtained by bugs in the UK, but not intercept evidence. Yet the government has used "evidential difficulties" in terrorism cases to justify control orders and an increase in the number of days' detention without charge to 28.'


Human rights specialist Stephen Grosz, a partner at Bindman & Partners in London, added: 'With proper safeguards, it is a good idea. Those suspected of terrorism need to be brought to trial, with the full guarantees of the criminal process, rather than being subject to control orders.'


He added: 'If the Attorney-General is now in favour of this, there must be some sort of movement within the security services. I do not think he would have come this far without the security services on board. It could be a major shift.'


But Girish Thanki, human rights partner at Thanki Novy Taube in London, warned: 'The US is being held up as an example, but the prosecutorial abuse in the US is really something to behold... MI5 and the police may want to present an extremely biased version of what was said. We will need a filter mechanism that will allow the defence access to other parts of the material.'


Rachel Rothwell