Prosecutors under fire after Damilola trial verdict

The not-guilty verdicts in the Damilola Taylor murder case led, predictably, to some soul-searching and finger-pointing.

While most tabloid commentators bemoaned the death of justice and the 'glaring errors in the bungled prosecution case' (Sun, 26 April), the Observer took a different line.

'If the fiasco of the Taylor trial proves anything,' argued Mary Riddell, 'it is that justice works' (28 April).

Although she admitted that the 'candyfloss prosecution case' had seemed 'a travesty', with 'shoddy police work and Crown incompetence', she claimed that 'the jury's delivery of the correct and only possible verdict was not a catastrophe for British justice - it was its triumph and its vindication'.

For the jury to convict two children on 'evidence that is flimsy, confected or bought' would have indeed been 'chilling', as was 'the fact that many would have celebrated if the jury had produced a different verdict on the same, flawed evidence'.

The Sun, however, was having none of it and adopted the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) as its new bte noire.

The 'chaotic' CPS lets 'the guilty walk free', the paper screamed (29 April).

Basing its story on a 'disturbing' report on the CPS in London which was actually published months ago - but was strangely not covered by the paper at the time - it claimed that a 'staggering' 172,000 cases were discontinued last year at a cost of 81 million.

It also said that 'CPS lawyers are often frequently inferior to defence barristers', and were usually 'overwhelmed with work'.

The paper found an ally in the form of its stablemate, the Sunday Times, which published an undercover probe into - guess what? - the 'haphazard, arcane and demoralising' scenes at the CPS (28 April).

Although generously admitting that 'some staff are highly motivated', the journalist who spent a week posing as a work experience student at Southwark Crown Court claimed that 'others exploit the civil service ethos of fixed hours, flexitime and days in lieu', and 'if they worked in a private company, would be sacked'.

The paper grudgingly conceded that it is not all the individuals' fault - the system 'breeds inefficiency', and 'honourable, hardworking young lawyers are drowning under a sea of administrative problems'.

Local justice in disarray was the order of the day elsewhere this week, with The Times reporting that the government's plan to introduce a 300 million computer system for magistrates' courts was 'on the brink of collapse' (25 April).

The system, named Libra, would have provided a caseworking computer system to 500 magistrates' courts, 'allowing them to share case files with other courts and law-enforcement agencies.

However, wrangles with the contractor have led the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, to warn that the plan may well be scrapped, leaving the taxpayer with a 159 million bill and magistrates with 'software that is available for a fraction of the cost at PC World'.

Victoria MacCallum