20 December 2025
And there is a persistent issue with interpreters. They speak the wrong language or dialect, they are not booked to arrive in time for the pre-court meeting between lawyer and defendant, or they simply do not turn up at all. [...]
At Woolwich crown court last week, a 17-year-old boy was due to face an allegation of sexual assault. But he never made it into the dock that day.
He was an hour late from Feltham youth detention centre for the 10am hearing, and a Senegalese interpreter had been booked but did not turned up on time.
However before the case could be heard, the boy’s defence barrister revealed that the CPS uploaded the evidence to the digital case system at 5.45am on the morning of the hearing, no indictment had been drawn up, and the prosecutor had no idea who the case worker was.
“It’s like a comedy of errors”, exclaimed the defence barrister, to which the clerk replied: “It’s chaos.”
The judge, wanting to get on with her other hearings, adjourned the case for a month. [...]
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