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774.   Complaint for offence triable either on indictment or summarily

Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2021)

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774.   Complaint for offence triable either on indictment or summarily

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    (1)   Where a complaint is laid for a charge against any person with an offence which by virtue of any enactment is both an indictable offence and a summary offence, the Court shall, if the defendant has attained the age of 12 years, proceed as if the offence is not a summary offence, unless the Court, having jurisdiction to try the complaint summarily, determines on the application of the prosecutor to do so.

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    (2)   An application under subsection(1) shall be made before any evidence is called and, if the defendant fails to appear to answer to the complaint, the application may be made in his or her absence.

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    (3)   Subject to subsection (4), where the Court has, in pursuance of subsection (1), begun to inquire into the complaint as an indictable offence, then if at any time during the inquiry it appears to the Court, having regard to any representations made in the presence of the defendant by the prosecutor, or made by the accused, and to the nature of the offence, that it is proper to do so, the Court may proceed to try the offence summarily.

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    (4)   Where the prosecution is conducted by or on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecution, the Court shall not proceed under subsection (3) to try the offence summarily without the consent of the Director of Public Prosecution.

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    (5)   Where the Court proceeds to try a case summarily under subsection (3) it shall, before asking the defendant whether he or she pleads guilty, cause the charge to be written down, if this has not already been done, and read to him or her.

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    (6)   Where, the Court has begun to try a complaint summarily under subsection (1), the Court may, at any time before the conclusion of the evidence for the prosecution, discontinue the summary trial and proceed to deal with the matter as an indictable offence.

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    (7)   Nothing in this section shall affect the right of the defendant or the prosecutor under any enactment to claim that an offence which is being tried summarily should be tried by a jury.

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    (Amended by Act 11 of 2008)

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