“You can’t charge me for asking someone to speak the truth”

Tuesday 11 February 2020

A 74-year-old man, accused of perverting the course of justice by trying to get someone else to confess to crimes he was convicted for, told Police: “You can’t charge me for asking someone to speak the truth."

The extract from Charles David Barnett's Police interview was read to a jury of seven men and five women on the second day of his trial in Jersey's Royal Court.

He is charged with a single count of perverting the course of justice – an allegation he denies – arising from a 'confession' letter he arranged to be sent to someone he claims is responsible for the crimes for which he himself is currently serving a prison sentence.

The 74-year-old was convicted in 2015 of offences relating to indecent images of children following a trial, and was subsequently sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. Mr Barnett later appealed both his conviction and sentence, but was unsuccessful. However, he has always maintained his innocence.

Pictured: Mr Barnett was originally convicted of offences relating to indecent images.

On the first day of his trial yesterday, the Royal Court heard that he had attempted to send a number of documents to a vulnerable individual from prison by asking a friend, who gave evidence on the first day of the trial, to take them to the individual.

These included a letter for the individual to sign, ‘confessing’ to the offences and asking that Mr Barnett’s “name be cleared from blame” and that he is “released from prison”.

They also included handwritten notes, which Mr Barnett claimed were penned by the individual he wanted to ‘confess’, listing a number of website addresses. Mr Barnett asserted this was evidence that the individual was searching for illicit content, not him.

The man asked to hand the documents to the vulnerable islander, did not take them to him, but instead took them to the Police.

Pictured: The charge relates to Mr Barnett's attempt to get a 'confession' out of someone else, blaming them for his own crimes.

The prosecution alleges that Mr Barnett never brought the individual he alleges is the perpetrator to the authorities’ attention prior to being jailed and that his actions amount to a perversion of the course of justice.

Today, the jurors heard the second half of Mr Barnett’s interview with Police regarding the documents he sent to his friend from prison.

Responding to questions from the interviewing officers, Mr Barnett said: “I’m not perverting any course of justice, there’s no 'course' in place."

Mr Barnett also indicated that he mentioned the individual to a number of his legal representatives, but that he “didn’t want to let [the person] down".

Elsewhere in the Q&A, the defendant protested: “You can’t charge me for asking someone to speak the truth."

Pictured: The trial is being held in the Royal Court.

During the interview, he admitted that by sending the letter he wanted to get his conviction quashed, but he denied that he was forcing the individual to sign the ‘confession’. He described it as “inviting him to agree or not to agree”.

Detective Constable Matthew Coleman, who read parts of the transcript for the court, then faced cross-examination from Mr Barnett’s defence lawyer Advocate David Steenson. 

The Advocate asked the Detective Constable whether the force had looked into Mr Barnett’s claims that someone else was responsible for the indecent images.

The Police Officer replied that “other than interviewing [the individual] himself, there was nothing else to investigate”.

Answering other questions as to whether Police had searched this person’s house, spoken to his family members, or looked at his computers, DC Coleman responded “no” to each question in turn.

The Court previously heard that the person was brought to the Police Station, but he was deemed medically ‘unfit’ to be interviewed by the Forensic Medical Examiner. 

The trial continues.