Top judges have criticized serious
failures by police and prosecutors to disclose evidence of police corruption in
the fraud case involving former governor of Delta State, Chief James Onanefe
Ibori.
The
affected Judges in the Court of Appeal outlined their “grave view” of the
failure by the Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to hand
over intelligence that could have undermined the case against James Ibori.
Ibori
had reportedly pleaded guilty in 2012 to laundering almost £50 million.
However,
it has since emerged that the Met had had intelligence since 2007 that one of
its investigating officers was being paid for information about the case.
The
authorities denied its existence for years, according to The Times newspaper.
Ibori
is appealing against his conviction on the ground that, had he been told about
the corruption intelligence, he would not have pleaded guilty.
In
February senior judges raised serious concerns about the disclosure failures
while rejecting an appeal by Ibori’s solicitor, Bhadresh Gohil, who was
convicted for being an accomplice in the money-laundering plot.
Lord
Justice Gross, sitting with Mr Justice William Davis and Mr Justice Garnham,
criticised the “erroneous approach” to disclosure and said that the failures
were “eminently avoidable”.
Their
judgment read: “We do not minimise the prosecution’s disclosure failures in
this case.
To
the contrary we take a grave view of them. As recent events have yet again
emphasised, disclosure failures can cause great injustice.”
The
judges did not overturn Gohil’s conviction in part because he had knowledge of
the alleged police corruption at the time of the trial but did not use it.
Judges
outlined at least four occasions in 2013 and 2014 when there were opportunities
for the authorities to have disclosed the evidence, which did not come to light
until 2016, and pointed to a “serious communications breakdown within the
prosecution team”.
The
CPS conducted a review of the disclosure failures in 2016 which was criticised
by Sasha Wass, QC, lead counsel in the Ibori and Gohil prosecutions, who said
its findings obfuscated the issues.
In November 2016 she wrote to
Alison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions (DPP), that the failure to
carry out a proper disclosure review “allows the police role in bribery and its
concealment in five separate trials over eight years to go unreported”.
She
was referring to the Ibori case and linked accomplice trials.
Ms
Wass has also claimed in correspondence to the DPP that she and the CPS were
“seriously misled” for years by Met detectives over the source of the
corruption intelligence. She said its relevance was hidden from counsel.
Her
account received backing from Lord Justice Gross, whose judgment concluded that
it was “fanciful” that Ms Wass and her junior would have deliberately misled
the court.
Met
detectives told a hearing during Ibori’s appeal in March that Ms Wass and her
junior barrister were aware of the evidence much earlier.
A
row has since broken out after Ms Wass complained that Jonathan Kinnear, QC,
who replaced her as lead counsel, had revised his position to “champion the
position of the police”.
Ms
Wass said last night that there were “numerous missed opportunities” to
disclose the police intelligence to the three QCs involved in the case and that
she immediately took appropriate steps when told of its relevance.
She
said she could not comment on the Ibori appeal.
A
CPS spokesman said its review found material that should have been disclosed
but it was inappropriate to comment further while proceedings continued.
The
Met said that the corruption allegations were thoroughly investigated and did
not result in arrests, charges or identifiable misconduct.
Mr
Kinnear said it would be inappropriate to comment while the case was considered
by the Court of Appeal.
Judges
have asked the prosecution to respond before they rule on the Ibori appeal,
reported The Times.
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