CRIMINAL

Defendant changing plea after jury sworn - judge discharging jury without requiring verdict - conviction not nullityR v Poole: CA (Lord Justice Judge, Mr Justice Hallett and Mr Justice Stanley Burnton): 27 November 2001A defendant changed her plea to guilty during a Crown Court trial.

The judge discharged the jury, explaining that he was not adopting the alternative course of requiring a verdict from them.The day after that change of plea, the defendant applied to vacate the guilty plea.

The application was refused.

The defendant appealed against conviction, contending, among other things, that the conviction was a nullity in the absence of a verdict returned by the jury.Mark Fenhalls (assigned by the Registrar of Criminal Appeals) for the defendant.

Richard Potts (instructed by the Crown Prosecution Service, Norwich) for the Crown.Held, dismissing the appeal, that a conviction which rested upon a change of plea at trial was not rendered a nullity where the jury returned no formal verdict; that that conclusion occasioned no unfairness to a defendant; and that, on its facts, the decision not to vacate the plea was unassailable.

(WLR)