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Lords amendment: No. 5, in page 5, line 19, leave out from "he" to end of line 23 and insert
or any person jointly charged with him elects to be tried by court martial in accordance with the provisions of this Act or of any Order made under this Act
§ Mr. WellbelovedI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.
No changes of policy are involved, but for the benefit of users it was considered, 744 on reflection, better to set out with precision what was previously implicit. These amendments therefore provide clearly that an accused has the right to elect trial by court martial instead of by standing civilian court, and that if this right is exercised by an accused, or by a co-accused jointly charged with him, steps shall be taken for the case to be heard before a court martial.
§ Mr. David Walder (Clitheroe)I take the hon. Gentleman's point that these are basically drafting amendments, and I hate to sound a little like the Bar examination, but the sort of problem which exercises my mind is this. What happens if, for instance, a civilian and a soldier are charged jointly and the soldier exercises his right to be tried by court martial? What happens if an adult and a juvenile are jointly charged? What is the procedure? Are both sets of rights guaranteed in that situation?
§ Mr. WellbelovedI am delighted to be able to assist the hon. Gentleman. If a Service man and a civilian are jointly charged, they will be charged together by court martial, since the Service man would not be amenable to jurisdiction in the standing civilian court.
Where two or more civilians are due to be tried together by a standing civilian court, and one or more but not all elect to be tried by court martial, as is their right under the Bill, then all of them will be tried by court martial together. It is right that they should stay together for trial. Indeed, this is the rule in the civil courts. The principle will apply where all the accused are adults or all juveniles, or where some are adults and others are juveniles.
Concerning the instance where two civilians, one an adult and one a juvenile, are jointly charged and come to trial before a standing civilian court, the court will be constituted by a magistrate sitting alone.
I hope that the hon. Gentleman will be satisfied with that brief explanation. If there are any subsequent doubts that he or any other hon. Member has on these very detailed legal points, I shall be more than delighted to ensure that they receive a full reply by some other means than in the course of this debate.
§ Question put and agreed to.