Hi Ilyas,
I cannot thank you enough for the support you have given me over the last 7 1/2 months. As you are aware, a conviction would have been life changing for me. As such, this period of time has been an absolute emotional roller coaster.
I have to say that the team you assembled at the court yesterday was nothing short of formidable, and I am totally convinced that their mere presence was enough to make the CPS to effectively ‘throw the towel in’. The final result, ‘Case Dismissed’ was far better than I ever could have imagined.
I have now had a bit of time to reflect back on the process and fully recognise that you have consistently done the right things at the right time, made all the right decisions, brought in the right people, and always kept one step ahead of the CPS. I now fully recognise and appreciate the amount of expertise you have applied to this case.
In addition, you have continuously kept me up to date with the situation and progress, which has definitely helped me keep re-assured that you were always there, in the background, looking after my interests. This was very important to me.
Once again, I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for me. I am now back home, with all this behind me, and can honestly say ‘this is the first day of the rest of my life’.
Yes, the CPS tried to vacate (I don’t think I’ll ever forget that word now), but Mr Veni put forward an excellent objection and the magistrates did not take long to reject. Mr Veni actually told us before we went into trial that the CPS would apply to vacate and would give up the case if their application was rejected. I don’t know how he got that information, but he was clearly in a different league to the CPS and I suspect they did not want to take him on in a trial.
Prof. Douglas did not even make it into the court room, however I am totally convinced that his mere presence at court was a major factor to the CPS’s decision to give up the case.
For myself, I was doing my best Swan impression, calm and serine on the surface, but flapping like mad underneath. I was well aware that you had put me in the best possible position and was obviously very worried about a postponement (however unlikely that may be). I cannot thank you enough for the very strong objection you made to the CPS’s request to vacate – this was a master stroke. I have to admit that I was convinced the court would accept the request and postpone the trial to a date when Dr Bourne was available. I am also convinced that your successful objection was a huge turning point in this case, in my favour, and Mr Veni’s successful objection at trial sealed the outcome.
Please take this correspondence as full consent to publish anything I have written to you, and I sincerely hope it helps you get more business. I cannot recommend you highly enough.
With regard to the application to recover costs, I really appreciate you doing this for me. As you are aware, I did not want such an application to risk the outcome, however now that the outcome is fixed and cannot be changed, any recovery is welcome. My bank account is still healthy, so the six month time frame is of no significant concern to me. As you said on the phone last week, any financial recovery of legal costs will be a bonus.
With my very best regards,
P S, Sheffield