Lessons can be learned from case of disabled teenager charged with racial attack

22/04/2008

Capability Scotland provided commentary for a story published in The Times in April about a teenager with Down’s Syndrome who was accused of a racial attack on a pupil at his school.  The case was eventually dropped seven months later but the boy’s parents argued that the case should never have gone so far in the first place.  You can read the article in full here.

In the extract below, Capability’s Director of Policy and Communications Richard Hamer,outlined lessons that could be learned from the case.

“Jamie's experience is a sad one, and one from which we must learn lessons. It also highlights well the challenges facing Scotland's police and court system in ensuring justice in relation to disabled people.
“At the heart of his story is the concept of capacity. This is in both legal terms and in relation to a capacity to understand simply what is right or wrong.

“At the forefront of any police officer's mind when conducting an interview should be “does this person have the legal capacity to understand and be held accountable for his actions?”

“We would also hope that an element of common sense and reasonableness would also prevail; those qualities that we often attribute to the “bobbies on the beat” in former times.

“This sense of reasonableness does not mean ignoring the facts of a case. When the police are asked to investigate a complaint of racism it is only right that they do so, regardless of whether the accused is a disabled person or not. It is the sensitivity and understanding that they employ when questioning,and reporting the incident to the procurator fiscal, that is important.

“The police officers who interviewed Jamie may well have assumed that his father was acting on his behalf. However, although he would certainly know best his son's ability to understand the consequences of his actions, he may have been equally upset and intimidated by the intervention of the police. Skilled and independent advocacy is essential when someone lacks capacity and it is the job of the officers investigating to ensure that this is in place.

“It is easy to blame police officers for getting it wrong, but harder to give them the skills to get it right. Capability Scotland's work with the Scottish Prison Service may give some clues about how we can do this. For example, we have developed small flash cards that prison officers can carry and refer to when they need to respond to a disabled offender's needs. Such an approach could easily be adopted to give police officers the necessary skills to act appropriately where a person's capacity is in doubt.
“The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service also faces the challenge of learning from Jamie's story. Speed must be of the essence when cases involve vulnerable people, or those who may lack capacity.

“Capability's recent discussions with both the police and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service have shown them to be keen to learn and improve their service through input from disabled people. We are committed to making sure that this happens.

“Unfortunately, there is no “one size fits all” approach to communicating effectively with people with Down's syndrome or other learning difficulties. The same basic rules apply as to other disabled people: work from the principle that they have capacity, listen without prejudice to what they say and then evaluate whether there may be a need to take further advice. This advice could befrom a parent or guardian, from a support worker or, in the case of the police, from someone at the police station who is skilled in assessing capacity.

“People with Down's syndrome have the same right to be believed as any other citizen, and the same right to be protected if they lack capacity.”

Published in The Times (Thursday 17th April 2008)

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