ABSTRACT
Dean has been charged with burglary of shop premises. He has a number of previous convictions for similar offences. He comes to see you two days before his initial court appearance, stating that he denies the offence and wants to elect trial by jury. He claims that he has an alibi, the brief details of which he gave to the police when interviewed. After assisting him in completing an application for legal aid, you arrange for him to apply for an adjournment until legal aid is granted and for you to consider advance disclosure. Advance disclosure makes clear that the prosecution are relying on evidence of glass fragments found in his clothing, which was seized when he was arrested, which the forensic scientist claims are similar to the glass in the window which was smashed at the time of the burglary. A summary of the interview says that Dean claimed that he was at a public house with a group of people whose first names only he knew, in a town 20 miles away on the evening of the burglary.
