Nick Wragg and Dora Belford of counsel have successfully represented a young student accused of the very serious charge of child neglect in that she was alleged to have inflicted a cigarette burn on the foot of her young disabled son.

Family proceedings presided over by a High Court Judge resulted in the commission of expert reports from two specialists in this field. The High Court Judge found that the local authority that brought the proceedings could prove neither whether the injury was in fact a cigarette burn nor how it was caused.

Nick Wragg, with the assistance of Counsel, wrote a detailed letter of representations to the Crown Prosecution Service, enclosing redacted portions of the judgement from the family proceedings. It was represented to the CPS that it would be perverse for this matter to be put before the jury who would be asked to debate the same question as the High Court Judge but would have to apply a much more stringent proof test. Failure by the CPS to consider these representations resulted in the defence listing this matter at Court and recruiting the assistance of the Crown Court Judge who agreed that the matter should be properly reviewed.

The Crown Prosecution Service finally conceded and offered no evidence at court. The baby is now safely returned to his mother.