Judgment Approved by the court for handing down.
DPP v Bussetti
similar in content to the video shown and subsequently
uploaded onto YouTube by a person unknown?
3. In all the circumstances was I required to consider
whether the content contained in a video I could not be sure
I had seen was grossly offensive to members of the public or
victims of the Grenfell tragedy?”
19.
The DPP did not pursue question 1 but did pursue questions 2 and 3. He took issue with
some of the wording of the case stated and applied to this court for a direction that it
should be amended. That application was heard by Carr LJ and Jeremy Baker J on 29
October 2020. This court directed that the case stated be amended in a number of
respects, of which the most important were set out at paragraphs 27, 28, 32, 33 and 37
of the judgment of Carr LJ:“27 I consider that the Case Stated in its current form does not
summarise the evidence which formed the basis of the Chief
Magistrate’s factual conclusion that, without seeing the video
recording taken by the Respondent, she could not be sure that it
was, in fact, similar in content to the video recording shown and,
subsequently, uploaded on to YouTube. Paragraph 2 simply
records an outline of the contents of the video recording
recovered from YouTube and then only in the briefest of terms.
Paragraph 9 simply records the Chief Magistrate’s ruling, at the
conclusion of the prosecution case, not to dismiss the case at that
stage. The prosecution case, however, on the question of whether
or not the material was grossly offensive, is, in my judgment, not
limited to those material features summarised in para.9 of the
Case Stated; the prosecution would not be limited in its
submissions on that question at the conclusion of trial.
28 I consider, therefore, the case needs to be amended to
summarise the evidence which formed the basis of the Chief
Magistrate’s conclusion in this regard and her reasons for it. The
simple point is that this court does not yet know the basis for her
statement in para.21 of the Case Stated that there simply was no
other evidence. In light of the admissions, the interview given by
the Respondent and the evidence that he gave at trial, these are
matters which would benefit from clarification.
...
32 It seems to me that there can be no question but that the
relevant admissions that were in evidence, together with the
agreed summary of the Respondent’s interview under caution
three days after the bonfire party, must be incorporated in the
Case Stated for consideration by this court when hearing the
appeal. The DPP’s case could not fairly or properly be
considered without them. The Respondent agreed that he took a
video recording of the burning of the effigy. He stated in
interview that he believed that the video recording from