Justin Griffith trial: Day 17 at Winchester Crown Court

On Day 17 of the trial of Justin Griffith, 42, accused of murdering Sean Ember, 35, in Arcaro Road, Andover, on November 29 last year, Detective Sergeant Carl Holmes continued to give evidence in Winchester Crown Court.

Defence barrister Andrew Bird KC questioned DS Holmes, who is the receiver in the case tasked with examining evidence to see if any action needs to be raised, about an urgent interview which was conducted with Justin Griffith while he was in Basingstoke hospital.

The court watched a portion of the interview, which was conducted while Griffith was sitting on his hospital bed wearing handcuffs.

Detective Constable Tom Bailey conducted the interview and was asked by Griffith "do I get a solicitor here?"

DC Bailey replied: "Not for this bit."

Griffith responded: "I'm under arrest, my solicitor explained he should be here."

DC Bailey replied: "This is an urgent interview," and Griffith asked: "Can I call my solicitor?"

In response, DC Bailey explained: "An urgent interview can be carried out under certain circumstances.

"If you would like a solicitor, that is fine, you can have access to one at a later time.

"You do not have to say anything, but anything you do say may be given in evidence."

At this point, Andrew Bird paused the recording and asked DS Holmes: "The Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) comes with some codes of practice.

"Code C of PACE comes with interview principles - a detainee that wants legal advice may not be interviewed except under exceptional circumstances.

"Does the prosecution accept that this interview was conducted in breach?"

DS Holmes responded: "I'll accept that after watching the interview, this wasn't exactly following guidelines."

Mr Bird then said: "Fynn Richardson had his urgent interview after contact with a solicitor.

"Justin Griffith asked about a solicitor and was told point blank by DC Bailey that he couldn't have one.

"What's more is that it wasn't conducted in a police station but in a hospital, your Detective Superintendent got this wrong, didn't he?"

DS Holmes responded, and admitted that DC Bailey also failed to seek permission from the doctor to interview Griffith: "The thing here that we hold our hands up to is when you interview people in hospital, you need the doctor's consent, but we didn't have that."

Mr Bird then said: "So that's a third breach then."

DS Holmes explained the reasoning for this, saying: "The thing with urgent interviews is they are called that for a reason.

"On the information we had at the time, Mr Griffith gave an account that there was an unknown third party out there somewhere in Andover that stabbed a man, killed him and is not in custody.

"The interview is so urgent that it has to be conducted now, the questions have to be really focused."

The trial continues.