CEDH · PRESS;GENERAL;ENG — 26 juin 2001

.s800EAC49 { font-size:12pt } .sFE10DC93 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .sA1D3DA2E { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:justify } .s94935B0F { width:389.85pt; display:inline-block } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .s32563E28 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt } .s10950C61 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:14.2pt; text-align:justify } .s4DDA3AA3 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic } .sD35C6159 { width:1.54pt; display:inline-block } .s38DD6A04 { width:18.2pt; display:inline-block } .sCB27B9E { width:16.66pt; display:inline-block } .sC5412BEF { width:51.05pt; display:inline-block } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS     460   26.6.2001   Press release issued by the Registrar   HEARING IN THE CASE OF C.G. v. THE UNITED KINGDOM   Tuesday 26 June 2001 at 9 a.m.   The applicant   The case concerns an application brought by Mrs C.G., a British national, who was born in 1970 and lives in the north of England.   Summary of the facts   The applicant was charged with theft of approximately GBP 2,900 from her place of employment. She pleaded not guilty and, in April 1997, following a three-day trial in a Crown Court before a judge and jury, she was convicted and sentenced to two years’ probation and one hundred hours’ community service.   The applicant appealed against conviction. Her grounds of appeal were, among other things, that the judge had persistently interrupted and hectored her defence counsel throughout the trial, and made a defective summing up to the jury, thus depriving her of a fair trial. In particular, she submitted that during her counsel’s cross-examination of the main prosecution witness, S., the judge intervened so frequently that her counsel was prevented from testing the accuracy of a schedule of banking payments prepared by that witness which was the basis of the prosecution case, and was thus barred from developing possible lines of defence. She also complained that the judge had constantly interrupted her examination-in-chief, making it impossible for her to give her evidence to the jury in a coherent manner, and had hectored her counsel to such an extent that he had had to curtail the examination.   In February 1998 the Court of Appeal dismissed the applicant’s appeal on the ground that, although there was “some substance” to her allegations of misconduct by the trial judge, this did not mean that her conviction was “unsafe” for the purposes of the relevant statutory test.     Complaints   The applicant complains that the trial judge’s constant interventions and hectoring of her counsel, together with the Court of Appeal’s decision that the conviction was safe, deprived her of a fair trial, in breach of Article 6 § 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights.   In addition, she complains of a violation of her rights under Article 6 §   3(d) of the Convention, in that the defence counsel’s cross-examination of S. and examination of the applicant were unfairly negated by the trial judge’s interventions.     Procedure   The application was lodged with the European Commission of Human Rights on 24 July 1998. On 1 November 1998, the case was transmitted to the Court, which declared the application admissible on 11 April 2001.   Composition of the Court   The case will be heard by a Chamber composed as follows:   Jean-Paul Costa (French), President , Willi Fuhrmann (Austrian), Loukis Loucaides (Cypriot), Françoise Tulkens (Belgian), Karel Jungwiert (Czech), Nicolas Bratza (British), Kristaq Traja (Albanian), judges , Hanne Sophie Greve (Norwegian), Mindia Ugrekhelidze (Georgian), substitute judges ,   and also Sally Dollé , Section Registrar .   Representatives of the parties   Government:   Christopher Whomersley , Agent , David Pannick and Mark Shaw , Counsel , Nichola Samuel and Gillian Harrison , Advisers ;   Applicant:   Anthony Engel , Counsel, Geoffrey Barrett , Solicitor .   ***   After the hearing the Court will begin its deliberations, which are held in private. Judgment will be delivered at a later date.   Registry of the European Court of Human Rights F – 67075 Strasbourg Cedex Contacts:   Roderick Liddell (telephone: (0)3 88 41 24 92)   Emma Hellyer (telephone: (0)3 90 21 42 15) Fax: (0)3 88 41 27 91   The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. On 1 November 1998 a full-time Court was established, replacing the original two-tier system of a part-time Commission and Court.