The Court of Appeal has quashed the childhood convictions of our client, “BSG”, for possession with intent to supply Class A drugs. It found that BSG would probably have succeeded in arguing that he was a victim of modern slavery but had received no advice about the modern slavery defence from his former criminal defence solicitors.
The modern slavery defence for children requires that their offences are a direct consequence of being a victim of modern slavery or human trafficking. The court confirmed: “a clear injustice has been done: the applicant has put forward a credible account to the effect that he offended as a direct consequence of his having been groomed, exploited and threatened … we accept that a reasonable person in the applicant’s situation would have done the same as he did”.
The Applicant, BSG, was represented by Colin Gregory of Bhatt Murphy and Stephen Knight of One Pump Court.
Read the judgment here.
