21 May 2013
Government won’t
investigate Du interpreter fiasco
The Government has said
it will not investigate a firm which failed to send a Mandarin interpreter for
a court appearance of murder suspect, Anxiang Du.
Capita, the firm contracted by the Ministry of
Justice to provide foreign interpreters in courts, was branded a “disgrace” by
a High Court Judge last week after Du’s latest court appearance had to be
adjourned.
Du, aged 54, was due to enter pleas for charges of
murdering Jifeng Ding, his wife Helen, and their two children Xing, aged 18,
and Alice, aged 12.
During the plea and case management hearing at
Nottingham Crown Court, at which Anxiang Du was present, the High Court Judge
explained he had asked for an interpreter to be booked.
However, he said the firm indicated it was not
worth sending one as they “would not make enough money” from the hearing.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “We have
worked with Capita to make dramatic improvements in the interpreter service,
saving taxpayers £15 million last
year. These kinds of issues are now rare.”
The court heard the firm had been ordered to send
an interpreter, but when the hearing started at 2pm there was no interpreter
present and therefore no pleas were entered.
The Mandarin interpreter did eventually arrive at
about 2.30pm, but the hearing had already finished and she left the court
precincts soon afterwards.
Mr Justice Flaux said: “To say that the presiding
judge of the court is annoyed about this is an understatement.”
Instead a fresh plea and management hearing is to
be held at Northampton Crown Court in July.
Northampton North MP, Michael Ellis, himself a
barrister, labelled the debacle as an “outrage and a disgrace”.
However, a Capita spokesman denied the firm had
refused to send an interpreter.
He said: “After the original interpreter booked to
attend the hearing was unable to attend, Capita worked to secure a replacement.
“The replacement interpreter could not attend until
2.30pm and we communicated this, in good time, to the court. Capita at no time
refused to arrange an interpreter to attend Nottingham Crown Court on cost or
any other grounds.”
No comments:
Post a Comment