ABSTRACT
S. Medford, Professor Gisli Gudjonsson and J. Pearse highlighted that, of the vulnerable adults brought into police custody within a month, 600 were not provided with an appropriate adult. B. Irving and I. McKenzie highlighted a number of the problems with the police interview, particularly how vulnerability was identified by custody officers. Whilst neither PACE nor Code C establish how vulnerability should be identified, previous versions of Code C (soft law) set out a ‘benefit of the doubt’ test, which required that an appropriate adult be called in the event that the custody officer had ‘any doubt about the mental state or capacity of the detainee’. The risk assessment includes a range of questions, which may provide information through which to identify vulnerability. Since May 2018, the Code, for the first time, contains information on how vulnerability may be identified. Whilst law and guidance may provide some information on how vulnerability could be identified, this is merely abstract.
