Tom represented a man of good character charged with two offences of wilful neglect of a person for whom he cared who, the prosecution asserted, lacked capacity contrary to s.44 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005  The defendant was allegedly witnessed by four neighbours leaving his patient unsupervised in a car for up to two hours on multiple occasions in the heat of summer.

At trial before the Resident Judge at St Alban’s, Tom successfully argued that the expert opinions of a GP and a mental health nurse specialist should be excluded from the trial. He then secured an acquittal for the defendant on both counts by arguing that there was insufficient evidence that the vulnerable patient lacked capacity under s.2-4 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

The trial judge commented that the prosecution case had “gone down in flames” and directed the jury to return not guilty verdicts after lengthy legal argument involving “very complicated” areas of law.

Tom was instructed in this matter by Michael Greenleaf of SJ Law.