CROWN COURT
DIRECTION OF MR JUSTICE WEIR
Examination of prisoners for Court Purposes by Medical Experts at Prison
The following note is being issued on the direction of Mr Justice Weir, the Senior Criminal Judge.
Solicitors, Medical Practitioners and Clinical and Forensic Psychologists are asked to note the following:
From now on when booking Medical Practitioners or Clinical or Forensic Psychologists into HMP Maghaberry to examine for Court purposes you are entitled to request that accommodation be provided in the Hospital Wing at the prison for the purpose of carrying out the examination of the prisoner. Solicitors must make the request for the hospital wing facility when arranging the initial booking with prison visits staff as it will be too late for a Doctor to ask for the facility on their arrival. If the request is not made on booking it is probable that the Doctor will be directed as heretofore to the glass professional visiting booths which are designed for Solicitors and Barristers and are unsuitable for medical and psychological consultations.
The Director of the Northern Ireland Prison Service (“the Director”) in consultation with Mr Justice Weir agreed some months ago to this facility being made available. However, it now appears that prison staff at Maghaberry have been indicating that they are unaware of the arrangement.
Therefore, should you encounter difficulty when scheduling Doctors’ visits for Court purposes you should remind prison staff that an arrangement has been agreed between Mr Justice Weir and the Director (with the concurrence of Mr Cawkwell of Prison Service and the various governors). The Judge has recently been informed by the Director that a direction implementing the arrangement has now issued to all visits staff so that they should be well aware of it.
In order to monitor and review the effective implementation of this arrangement the Judge has asked that, should there continue to be cases where you encounter difficulties in making such an arrangement, you should make whatever alternative arrangement you can for that particular visit (which is likely to involve the glass booths). The matter should then be immediately reported to this Office (providing as much detail as possible) so that the Judge can, should it become necessary, take up the matter again with the Director.
Please assist by bringing this note to the attention of professional colleagues and relevant medical and psychology practitioners.
Issued by the Case Management Team (Lord Chief Justice’s Office)
24 November 2014