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High Court quashes conviction for public order offence, on the grounds that: (a) while there was an arguable case that the applicant was convicted for the lesser offence under applicable legislation, which appeared to be described on the charge sheet, the transcript did not allow for this conclusion as this would mean that the trial judge had been mistaken twice in stating that the conviction was for the more serious offence; (b) the High Court cannot assume that a trial judge has made a mistake in a pronouncement in open court and cannot go behind such a pronouncement even where it appears that the judge may be mistaken; and (c) therefore, the applicant was convicted of an offence under the applicable statutory provision and, consequently, the conviction could not stand where the case was tried summarily though the applicant had not exercised his right of election in this regard.
Application of order of certiorari quashing conviction for public order offence - s.19 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 as amended - applicant convicted in his absence - District Court ordered that he be brought before the court for sentencing - charge sheet did not specify an offence but lesser offence under s.19(3) appeared to be described - trial judge indicated to applicant's solicitor that applicant was being convicted under s.19(1) despite this not being on the charge sheet but also described this as the lesser charge - order only recorded bench warrant and no conviction - correspondence from solicitor to court and to prosecution in attempt to clarify what had occurred - District Court lacked jurisdiction to try a s.19(1) case in the absence of the applicant electing to have the matter heard summarily - whether the trial judge had amended the charge sheet - whether the trial judge has jurisdiction to do so - whether the applicant had been convicted of an offence at all and, if so, which specific offence.
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