Cases

Hunt v AB

Held

(1) (a) In law, the first key requirement for a person to be a prosecutor is that they desire and intend the defendant should be prosecuted. This is a subjective not an objective test. AB was manifestly not the prosecutor; she did not want H prosecuted. So the appeal failed on the facts.

(b) Normally responsibility for a prosecution will lie with the police or CPS who exercise a discretion. A witness, even a key witness, is not exposed to liability for malicious prosecution unless, exceptionally, it is proved that she and not the authorities were truly responsible for bringing it about; that they were manipulated or their discretion overborne or perverted by her, which was not shown here;

(2) (per Sedley LJ) The Judge was entitled to take a view on AB's veracity; (per Moore-Bick LJ) the Judge was wrong to try that issue on the papers without a Jury, absent H's consent;

(3) (per Sedley and Moore-Bick LJJ) the Judge did not strike his own policy balance.

Also