Vindicated – Proceedings Stayed

Solicitor Advocate, Lloyd Jenkins and Crown Court Caseworker, Dean Graham, were recently successful in staying proceedings in a private informant entrapment case.

Against a background of ill-feeling, two fellow students created a fake profile on Snapchat purporting to be a 15year old female. They then targeted the vulnerable 19year old defendant and sent him a direct friend request, which he accepted.

Both parties then engaged in a conversation via Snapchat. It wasn’t long before the online conversation turned sexual. Both students, in the guise of a 15year old female, began to ask provocative and leading questions.

It was submitted that both students crossed a line and did their best to lure, encourage and entice a vulnerable individual to respond in a certain way which might see him break the law.

After hearing competing submissions and taking a full week to decide, the learned judge carefully ruled that the deliberate setting up of a decoy female profile and then targeting a vulnerable individual with quite obvious limitations was most definitely a step too far.

Proceedings stayed.