The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has launched a legal challenge after several judges released suspects on bail because delays caused by the barristers’ strike meant they had exceeded their custody time limits.
The CPS has been granted the right to have a judicial review of at least three cases where judges rejected an application by a prosecutor to extend the custody of suspects beyond the limit.
In one case the Recorder of Bristol, Judge Peter Blair QC, refused to extend custody time limits and granted bail to a defendant, saying “the state has had many months to resolve the current dispute.”…