A decision to prosecute is not a medical matter, nor should the CPS be blithely leaving it “for a jury to decide”.
So argues David Allen Green in a powerful piece in the New Statesman questioning the CPS’ judgement in bringing the Walsh prosecution.
“The CPS instead has the important function of deciding if cases are properly arguable and in the public interest.
But, yet again, the CPS has prosecuted a case free from any notion of proportion, and without respect for a defendant’s privacy and dignity.
There are suggestions that the defendant’s previous work in prosecuting corrupt police officers may have something to do with why this case was ever brought. If so, that would be a horrific abuse of process. However, even if that s not relevant, this was still an inappropriate application of what was a bad law to begin with.
One definition of extreme pornography is that it portrays an image of something which would cause, or would be likely to cause, serious injury to a person.
But it is prosecutions like this which cause serious injury, both to respect for the law and our sense of living in a liberal society.”