Mr Geoffrey Scriven And The Attorney General

EDM number 676 in 1996-97, proposed by Mike Hall on 17/03/1997.

That this House notes that Mr Geoffrey Scriven, a 60 year old businessman, was recently tried for scandalising the court, in the first case of its kind since 1931; notes that in that case he was unrepresented by counsel, was denied an adjournment, did not have the safeguard of a jury, and was threatened with indefinite imprisonment and financial penalties; further notes the proceedings took place without investigation into his allegation of fraud and perjury by a solicitor, notwithstanding the fact that libel laws were available to those accused of fraud and perjury, and that the Attorney General took the decision to prosecute because of Mr Scriven's exposure of secret briefings regarding his case, a prosecution which led to Mr Scriven making, under duress, undertakings about his allegations and being ordered to pay some costs of the case; and therefore calls upon the Attorney General, as the guardian of the public interest, to investigate these allegations, both to restore public confidence in the judicial process and treat Mr Scriven with the fairness under the law which has been denied to him.

This motion has been signed by a total of 14 MPs.