This ruling was subsequently upheld by the Court of Appeal Criminal Division after the prosecution appealed the terminatory ruling.
X was charged on indictment with the murder and attempted murder of two other youths. The facts as alleged by the Crown were that X had been instrumental in seeking to arrange a meeting between two groups of youths (Group 1 and Group 2) in a Luton pub car park to have a “stab-out”. The Crown’s evidence relied upon extensive CCTV and X’s telephone messages in the build-up and aftermath of the incident. The two victims were both members of the same group as X (Group 2). The Crown argued that X and other members of Group 2 (including the victim of the attempt murder) were liable based on secondary parasitic liability. They asserted that X’s liability was predicated upon the principles established by the Supreme Court in the case of R v Gnango [2011] UKSC 59. Specifically, that there had been a pre-arranged agreement for the two groups to stab and be stabbed at, and/or, in the alternative, there had been a spontaneous conditional agreement of the same. Following both written and oral argument submitted to the Court the Resident Judge ruled that there was no case to answer in respect of X for murder, attempted murder and their respective alternatives on the indictment, based on both first and second limbs of Galbraith.
The Crown applied to appeal the terminatory ruling per section 57 & 58 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. The application was heard before the full court on 9 August 2024 before William Davis LJ, McGowan J and Bennathan J. Having heard submissions both orally and in writing, the Court granted leave but refused the Crown’s application. The Court will hand down its full reasoned judgment in due course.
A website article on this obscure branch of secondary party liability will be published by 9BR Chambers in due course, encompassing the unresolved question as to whether Gnango liability survives the ratio on joint enterprise as set out in R v Jogee [2016] UKSC 8.
Ignatius Hughes KC and Jordan Santos-Sindes were instructed by Nick Seeley of Lawtons Solicitors.
